Fried Rabbit
Clean and wash well; let it boil a few minutes; when cold cut it into joints, dip into beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs, season with salt and pepper; fry in butter and lard mixed until a nice brown. Remove the pieces of rabbit, thicken the gravy with little flour, pour in a cup of milk or cream, let it come to a boil and pour over the rabbits. Serve hot with onion sauce.
Garnish with sliced lemon.
A straightforward breaded fry with a pan gravy built in the same skillet. The one thing the original glosses over is that the brief boil is not enough to cook the rabbit, and the frying has to finish the job.
- The parboil is for tenderness, not doneness"Let it boil a few minutes" firms the meat and makes it easier to joint, but the rabbit is still raw inside. Older or wild animals benefit from a genuine simmer of 20-30 minutes until the meat gives at the hip joint; farmed rabbit needs only five or ten.
- Cook it throughRabbit should reach 160F at the thickest part of the hind leg. Because the pieces are uneven, fry the legs and saddle first and add the thin forelegs and ribs later, or they will be dry before the legs are done.
- JointingA rabbit breaks into two hind legs, two forelegs, and the saddle cut across into two or three pieces. A 2 1/2 to 3 lb rabbit gives four servings; the recipe shifts from 'it' to 'the rabbits', so the quantity intended is not clear.
- Butter and lard mixedThe lard raises the smoke point so the butter does not blacken. Half and half, about 4 tablespoons total in a heavy skillet, over medium heat. Clarified butter or butter with a neutral oil does the same work.
- Cracker crumbsPeriod cracker crumbs were rolled soda or water crackers, coarser than modern dry breadcrumbs and, in the case of soda crackers, saltier. Crushed unsalted saltines are the closest match; panko browns too fast for the long fry the legs need.
- The gravyPour off all but about 2 tablespoons of fat, stir in an equal amount of flour and cook it a minute before the milk goes in, or the sauce tastes raw. The original specifies only 'a little flour' and lets you choose milk or cream; cream will give a richer, thicker result.
- Onion sauceThe book assumes a separate white onion sauce, essentially a bechamel with onions simmered soft in the milk. Skipping it and serving only the pan gravy loses nothing important.
- Handling wild rabbitIf the rabbit is wild rather than farmed, wear gloves when skinning and cleaning and wash everything afterwards; tularemia is transmitted through cuts, not through cooked meat. Cooked to 160F the meat itself is safe.
Rabbit sat in the game chapter of American cookbooks well into the twentieth century, alongside squirrel, venison and wild fowl, because for most rural households it was free meat rather than something bought. The treatment here is the same one applied to chicken in the same books: parboil, egg and crumb, fry in a mixed fat, then build a milk gravy from the fond. That gravy, sometimes called country or cream gravy, may be part of why the technique survived in the South long after rabbit dropped off the table. The sliced lemon garnish and the onion sauce are often said to be inherited from English game cookery, where acidity and alliums were the standard answers to meat that could be strong-tasting or dry.