THE USEFUL RABBIT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 314, 29 June 1945, Page 25

THE USEFUL RABBIT

\v ABBITS are a_ tremendous help in adding variety to the menu, without trespassing on the meat ration. They can be cooked in so many different ways, too, that you can have one rabbitday a week for about three months without repeating the dish once! For stance:Rabbit Colifornie Style The butcher or fishmontger will chop up the rabbit into neat joints for you. Wash these in salted water, containing a little vinegar. Dry them, and coat each one with flour well seasoned with pepper and salt. Melt sufficient dripping in a deep frying pan (bacon fat is nice for this) and brown the joints well all over. The pan may be first rubbed over with a peeled clove of garlic. Place the browned joints in a casserole or baking dish, just cover with milk, put the lid on, and bake in hot oven (375 deg.) for about an hour, or. until rabbit is tender. Serve with red currant jelly, or quince honey. Roast Rabbit (special stuffing) Make the stuffing with one cup each of soft breadcrumbs, chopped apple and chopped raisins or sultanas, a tablespoon of finely chopped onion, 2. slices of minced bacon, pepper and salt to taste, and a beaten egg to bind. If an egg is out got the question, a little milk must do. Fill the rabbit, sew it up, smear well with dripping, and bake in a steady oven. A slice or two of bacon should be placed over the rabbit the last halfhour, as you do when baking a fowl. Takes about 114 to 2 hours. Whole onions may be baked around the rabbit. Baste occasionally with the fat. Rabbit and Mushroom Pudding Line a pudding basin with good suet pastry. Have the rabbit jointed, and soaked for a little while in weak vinegar and water. Put into the lined basin a layer of rabbit, then a tablespoon or two of chopped onion and sage leaves, and ' a good sprinkling of flour with pepper and salt to taste. Cover with a layer of peeled mushrooms, and some strips of fat bacon; then more rabbit, sage and onion, flour and mushrooms. Half fill the basin with water, cover with a lid of suet pastry, put a butter-paper over the top, and steam for about 3 hours. This is both tasty and nourishing. Rabbit in Breadcrumbs ‘Cut rabbit (must be very young) in small pieces; barely cover with water and bring to boil. Add a small onion minced, and season to taste. Simmer ’ slowly until rabbit is tender; take out pieces; dip in egg and roll in breadcrumbs, and fry a golden brown; thicken the liquor in the saucepan with browned flour; add some chopped parsley and pour around rabbit. Tastes like chicken, Rabbit Baked in Milk Soak the jointed rabbit in salted water with a dash of vinegar for an hour. Dry the joints, and arrange them in a casserole with plenty of sliced onion, pepper and salt, and a pinch of mace. Then put

in 2 cupfuls of white breadcrumbs, and on top of all 2 or 3 slices of raw bacon. Cover the whole with milk, put a butterpaper over, and then a well-fitting lid. Bake in steady oven for approximately 2 hours, or till rabbit is tender. No thickening is necessary, as the breadcrumbs swell and make it thick enough. Serve straight ‘from casserole, Rabbit Soup Cut up a rabbit,’ cover with waters add plenty of cut-up onion and a carrot or two, and boil until the meat leaves the bones. Spring onions may be used, and also a turnip if liked. Strain, and return to saucepan. Add ¥% pint of milk, thicken with flour or cornflour and. season to taste. Some'of the rabbit meat should be put back into the soup. py scrort and nourishing.