Home › The Principles of Cookery › Rabbit Barbecued
Rabbit Barbecued
Take a young rabbit, open it all down, cut its head off, and wash it thoroughly; then lay it, back downward, in cold water, slightly salted, for an hour. Dry it thoroughly, and leave it for an hour or two; then cut it in several places across the back, and once in the thick part of the leg. Then dip it entirely in hot fat, pepper it well, and cook it before the fire or on a gridiron. Turn it frequently, and baste with fat during the cooking, which will take from twenty to thirty minutes. When nicely browned, put it on a hot dish with plenty of seasoning and some clarified butter; put a cover over, and set it in a hot oven for a few minutes. Mix together a tea-spoonful of French mustard, a table-spoonful of lemon-juice, and a small quantity of gravy made from the head. Heat this, and pour it over the rabbit. Put it on a hot dish, with slices of lemon, sprigs of fried parsley, and little croutons round it. Serve red currant jelly separately. Probable cost, 2s.
This is a spatchcocked rabbit grilled over live heat, finished with a sharp mustard-and-lemon sauce. Rabbit is very lean, so the whole method turns on constant basting and not overshooting the time.
- "Barbecued" hereIn Victorian usage this means split flat and cooked over or before a fire with frequent basting, not a smoky low-and-slow method. The nearest modern equivalent is a hot charcoal grill or a broiler set high, with the rabbit about 4-5 inches from the heat.
- Splitting the animal"Open it all down" means cutting through the belly and flattening the carcass, spatchcock-fashion, so it lies open with the back uppermost against the heat. The scoring across the back and through the thick of the hind leg lets the heat into the deepest muscle so the thin flank does not dry out while the leg is still raw.
- The soakAn hour in lightly salted cold water was a common way to draw blood out of freshly killed game and lighten the flesh. With farmed rabbit from a butcher it acts as a light brine; keep it refrigerated. The recipe specifies only 'slightly salted' and gives no quantity.
- Dipping in hot fatThis is a coating step, not frying. A quick immersion in hot lard, dripping or clarified butter coats the surface and gives something to brown; a heavy brushing achieves the same thing with far less fat.
- DonenessTwenty to thirty minutes is realistic for a young rabbit of 2-3 lb split flat over good heat, but judge by the leg: 160F/71C at the thickest part, with the juices running clear. Rabbit tightens and goes dry within minutes of that point, so check early and often.
- French mustardDijon or a smooth mild jarred mustard, not English mustard powder, which is far hotter and would swamp the lemon. A teaspoon is a small amount for a whole rabbit; taste and add more.
- Gravy from the headThe head would have been simmered down to give the small quantity of concentrated stock called for; the recipe does not say with what. If you have no head, two or three tablespoons of strong chicken or rabbit stock does the same job.
- The covered rest in a hot ovenA few minutes only, in a covered dish with seasoning and clarified butter. The book says only 'a hot oven', which is usually read as somewhere in the 400-450F range. It is a resting and basting step; leave it longer and the grilling is undone.
- Yield and costOne young rabbit serves two, or three at a stretch with the garnishes. "Probable cost, 2s." is two shillings, a market price from the book's own period and no guide to anything now.
Cassell's belonged to the great age of British rabbit cookery: wild and warren rabbit was among the cheapest meat available in the nineteenth century, sold by the couple in every market, and cookery dictionaries of the period carry dozens of ways to deal with it, from stews and puddings to this open-fire treatment. The word "barbecue" reached English from Caribbean Spanish barbacoa, and in older cookbooks it generally means an animal split open and cooked flat over or before a fire, which is the sense used here. The accompaniments place the dish in the British game tradition rather than any American one: fried parsley, croutons, lemon slices and a separate dish of red currant jelly are the standard furniture of hare, venison and game birds, and the mustard-and-lemon sauce sharpened with a little stock from the head belongs to the same thrifty logic that saw nothing on a carcass wasted.