Rabbit Hunting
Posted by Matt Wilkinson on March 31st, 2010
This post may not be everyone’s cup of tea and I apologise now if I do offend, but the reality of the situation is that in the not too distant past, humans had to hunt to survive.
As a bit of background, I was brought up in a small mining town in South Yorkshire. If you have read the book A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines or the later movie Kes adapted by Ken Loach you’ll kinda understand a bit about my childhood years which were spent hunting rabbits, pheasant and partridge in the local river. My parents were opposed to me owning a gun but a few of my friends were farmers’ sons and hunting was a way of life.
Now shooting for fun is a no go area, however when the purpose is to either educate or to eat, then hunting is ok in my book. While always remembering that you are dealing with a living creature and ensuring a swift, painless death. With this in mind, a couple of Sundays ago I went hunting with a good friend of mine chef Riccardo Momesso from Sarti restaurant in the city. We arrived at dusk at the private property of a well known farmer and set out on an expedition to shoot some rabbits and hares. Once killed, they were skinned immediately, and packed in ice before we set off home. The next morning in the kitchen I broke them down and tried a recipe out for staff lunch, Jugged Rabbit. Further down is a recipe that we now have on the menu and serve using farmed rabbit. For one reason or another the men in black (at least that’s what we shall call them for now) only allow us to serve farmed rabbit. It seems crazy to me that in Australia we are not allowed to serve the majority of wild shot game in a restaurant. This includes rabbit, venison and ducks but strangely not hare. And this is where I get confused. We are allowed to buy and use wild rabbit, but they have to come from licensed gunmen with an approval stamp from an abattoir – but not hare!!!. Seriously I don’t understand the logic. Anyway, having these wild rabbits in the kitchen is a big no no, but hey. In the past I have brought back the rabbits unskinned to show the guys in the kitchen how to do it. It is a dying art along with other butchery techniques and fishmongery that can result in chefs lacking basic skills and knowledge but most of all respect for the product they are using.
On the way to the farm Ricardo pointed out where the first few rabbits were let go in Australia by a bloke named Thomas Austin, who released 24 rascally rabbits from his farm/mansion near Winchelsea, Victoria in 1859. Apparently he said at the time “the introduction of a few rabbits could do little harm…” Massive understatement, Tommy. By 1926 there were 10 billion of them.
The destructive thing about rabbits is not only how fast they multiply, but the way they graze, cutting the vegetation down much lower to the ground than sheep or cattle. Thus affecting the regrowth and leaving the pasture open to infestation from inedible weeds, not to mention soil erosion which can affect water catchments.
Things got so bad that by the 1880’s farmers were abandoning their land to the rabbits. To alleviate the problem, in 1901 three rabbit proof fences were built in Western Australia to stop the plague spreading. These fences covered thousand of kilometers, running north to south across the state.
The virus myxomatosis was released by the Australian Government in 1950 to try and halt the growing rabbit population. It was spread through blood sucking insects, and 99% of rabbits died. The ones that were left though developed strong antibodies and passed these down to the next generation and so on, so that now ‘myxo’ is only fatal to about 50% of all rabbits. The government then released calicivirus in 1996 to further drop rabbit numbers. So far though, Australian rabbits remain.
So how do wild and farmed rabbit compare in taste? For me, wild game taste a lot stronger, deeper and a little more nasal (by this I mean the flavour comes through in the back pallet close to the nose airways where we can pick up stronger flavours). They don’t have a strict diet that is determined by man so I think this counts for unusual tastes in the meat that we no longer recognise but I do prefer wild. And in terms of texture, I think farmed rabbit wins. Less movement equals less use on the muscles so a more tender meat structure.
So, rabbits for eating… A traditional way of cooking hare- which I’ve substituted with rabbit in the recipe below is termed ‘jugging’. This method has been around since 1700, and was traditionally a way of preserving the meat since of course there were no refrigerators. The meat is cut into pieces and placed in a tightly sealing earthenware jug or dish with a brine or gravy and then stewed. The animals own blood is traditionally added to thicken the sauce. This was a very popular dish right up until the middle of the 20th century. Below is my version of jugged rabbit, I use the mustard and redcurrant jelly as the thickening part and put it in a pot instead of a jug (as jugging is really a way of a slow braising) then serve with colcannon – mashed potatoes with cabbage and spring onion.
Jugged Rabbit
1 rabbit serves two hungry people
You will need to procure 1 farmed rabbit or a wild one (if you’re game) and have it broken down into front legs, back legs and loin. I would recommend the Chicken Pantry at the Vic Market
Lightly flour the front runners (legs) and sauté in pot, remove.
Caramelise half each of 1 diced carrot, 1 onion, 1 turnip, 6 large dices of pancetta and 6 mushrooms in the same pot.
Add 1 ½ tablespoons of Dijon mustard and red currant jelly and lightly caramelise.
Deglaze with 500ml of white wine, reduce by half.
Add front legs back, cover with water bring to simmer, for 1 1/2 hours until cooked
Oh, add bouquet garni of sage, tarragon, white peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaf.
Meanwhile chop up the back legs and loin of the rabbit discarding any bones. When the front legs are cooked at the previous stage add the back legs and loin and return to heat for 12 minutes. Stir in some chopped parsley then serve in the pot you made it in.
