Wild rabbit?? to eat??

beaglebiz · #1 10/13/10, 05:00 PM

Well, I have two strapping young boys (11 and 12) that passed the three day hunter safety course, and will be out small game hunting (dh has not smal game hunted in years, but is taking the boys, they are excited, ). How do you all fix your wild rabbit and squirrel?? they are the most plentiful critters round here, with some woodcock, grouse and pheasant if you are lucky.

Oldcountryboy · #2 10/13/10, 09:02 PM

If at all possible, buy those boys a couple of beagles to rabbit hunt with. Not much more exciting then waiting on a couple of beagles to bring that rabbit back around for a shootin match. Wouldn't hurt to have a good Rat Terrior around to tree those squirrels also.

Most all my rabbits I cut up and just dip them in butter milk, sprinkle on salt and pepper for seasoning, roll them in flour and then pan fry them with a little less then medium heat. Squirrels will vary depending on the age, most get pressure cooked and then baked for crispyness.

Congradulations on the boys hunter safety coarse. My girls (9 and 11) just passed theirs a couple of weekends ago. This coming weekend they get to try for deer in the 3 day youth deer gun season. So hopefully we will be busy cutting up deer.

Ed Norman · #3 10/13/10, 09:13 PM

I've always cook them like rh, except once when I was a kid there was a boom year and my dad and I got a load of rabbits one weekend. We ground the meat and mixed it 50-50 with hot sausage and it made a great lean sausage.

Paquebot · #4 10/14/10, 02:02 AM

Wild rabbits are not going to be real tasty as is no matter how you cook them or what others will tell you. They'll taste like whatever spices are used to make them more appetizing. In fact, I've always thought of them as being bland compared to squirrel. (And this from someone whose best day was 13 and that was without a gun!) Squirrels went into pot pies or stews or fried as is but rabbits were parboiled, floured, and fried. That was my mother's way. I've since gone away from frying rabbits in a pan to either deep frying or a stew without the biscuits. However, I do have 3 rabbits in the freezer right now awaiting one more so I will have enough for an interesting rabbit pate recipe that I found.

Martin

CrashTestRanch · #5 10/14/10, 02:26 AM

salt water bath over night ...

beaglebiz · #6 10/14/10, 09:24 AM

Thanks...
We do have a beagle, but she is too old to hunt. She did years ago, but now she lays in the grass and barks at the rabbits. We do have a mixed breed lab/terrier mix that is a natural hunter, and went out last year with DH. She actaully caught a live pheasant. She wears a small cowbell and has an orange dog jacket.

Wis Bang 2 · #7 10/14/10, 12:00 PM

My grandmother browned the quartered rabbits and cooked em' in her spaghetti sauce...very tasty!

**alleyyooper** · #8 10/15/10, 08:41 AM

there are a lot of squirrel recipes in the squirrel meat thread some where just below this one.

For rabbits there are a whole bunch of recipes on line just by doing a search.
From simple clean and fry to the fancy fare they pay big bucks foir in fancy city resturants.

Here are a few to start.
http://rabbithuntingonline.com/recipes/

http://www.bowhunting.net/susieq/rabbit.html

http://www.food.com/recipes/rabbit

http://www.cookitsimply.com/rabbit.html

Like any wild game if properly cleaned and cared for it is really good food from a day in the field with loved ones.
It can be a rancid mess if not cared for properly.

Al

moonwolf · #9 10/16/10, 12:23 PM

try making rabbit sausage, if you don't care much for the taste of wild hare or rabbit meat baked or fried. I've ususally enjoyed the flavour of cottontail rabbit that I've hunted in my boyhood, and popping the odd snowshoe hare nowadays I eat on occasion in a stew or just grind up with some pork fat using a tasty sausage recipe.