HOW TO COOK RABBITS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6467, 22 April 1899, Page 3

HOW TO COOK RABBITS.

Broiled Rabbit. — Open ths rabbit right down, remove the head, and well wash and dry the carcase ; flatten it out, season lightly with salt and freshdly-ground black pepper, pour a little oiled butter over it, fold it up in a buttered paper, and broil it over a clear fire. When cooked, remove the paper, anJ dish the rabbit on a little anchovy or maitre d'hotet butter, and serve garnished with broiled mushrooms. For this dish the rabbit must be a young one. Rabbit Salad. —Roast two nice young rabbits, and, when cold, cut all the flesh you can into neat fillets, and lay these for an hour or two in a marinade of oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, tarragon, chervil, and chives or onion. Place in a salad bowl some qua--tered cabbage lettuce previously well tossed -in oil, vinegar, pepper and salt ; then lay on these the fillets of rabbits, garnish with little heap's of capersi • washed and filleted anchovies, sliced or quartered hard boiled eggs.' sliced -tomatoes, 1 ' and minced chives, tarragon, and chervil, aud. serve with or without a mayonnaise sauce in a boat. K-abbit a la Marengo. — Cue the rabbits into joints, season ,them with pepper and salt, then brown them nicely in a little oil, with some sliced onion and ham or baoon cut up into dice. When it is all delicately coloured and partly cooked, moisten it with a little- stock, finish cooking it, and, when completely done, pour it all on to a, hot dish, squeeze a little lemgn juice over all, and serve garnished with fried croutons spread with anchovy or maitre d'hotel butter and delicately-poached eggs. These should be fried, but in that case are rather apt to beindigestible.

Rabbits en Papilottes. — Out the rabb't into joints, removing the largest bones, then roll the joints into the following mixture : — Finely-grated white breadcrumbs, scraped fat bacon, minced parsley, mushrooms, chives and shalot, seasoned with salt and black pepper. When they are all well coated, wrap each in a thin slice of fat bacon, and then in a sheet of oiled or butter paper, and broil over a clear fire. Serve in tlip- cases.

Rabbit Fritters. — Prepare some cold roast rabbit as for, rabbit salad, and after marinading it dip ?«r into some rather thick frying batter, and fry in plenty of boiling fat till of a delicate golden-brown; drain well, dust with minced parsley and coralline pepper, and serve garnished with fried parsley and little rolls of fried, bacon, either iced tomato cream or tartare sauce being handed in a tureen.

Rabbit Pudding. — Line a basin with good suet crust, not too thickly, and then pack in the jointed rabbit (be careful to put the thick pieces nearest the crust), with ham or bacon cut into dice, oysters, mushrooms, or little cakes of sausage meat, according to what you have, seasoning it well with salt, pepper and minced parsley, and, if liked, chives, then add about a gill of stock made from the bones of the rabbit, and a few spoonfuls of cream or new milk, cover wifh the paste, and steam the pudding gently for about three hours ; then turn it out and serve with half-pint or so of the gravy left from the bones round it.

Stewed Rabbit. — This is excellent, served either with a puree of mushrooms or stewed celery, or dished, after cutting it into joints, alternately with slices of cookdd tongue, heated in a little wine and otock, a rich allemande sauce, made from the head and trimmings of the rabbit, poured oveT and round it, the centre of the dish being filled up with a ragout of cucumber. Or the rabbit may be made into a brown fricassee, and serve, garnished with oysters rolled in thin slices of bacon, and just crisped till the bacon is cooked. In this case the sauce should be thick, brown, rich, and flavoured with light French wine and lemon-juice.

Rabbit in Shells. — For this cut into shreds a cold, cooked rabbit, and mix these, shreds with rather more than a third of their bulk of cold ham or tongue, a hardboiled egg or two chopped into dice, celery shredded and crisped in cold water, and some French capers. Mix these all well together m some rich mayonnaise, fill little china shells or cases with the mixture, cover them over with a layer . of mayonnaise spread very smoothly, and garnish with washed and boned fillets of anchovy, strips of gherkin and a slice of truffle on the • top.