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To Fry Rabbits
519. First wash, soak, and prepare the rabbit for cooking, and then boil it (in boiling water) for six or seven minutes; drain it, and when nearly cold take off the legs and shoulders, and cut the back into joints. Dip each piece into yolk of egg and crumbs, the latter
A two-stage method: a brief blanching to set the flesh and shorten the frying time, then a crumb coating and a fry. The parboil is the part most cooks skip, and it is what keeps the interior from staying raw while the crust colours.
- The blanch is not the cookingSix or seven minutes in boiling water only firms the outside and makes the joints easy to handle. Rabbit still needs to reach about 160F/71C at the thickest part of the leg, which means a proper fry afterwards, not a quick browning.
- Cool before jointingWorking the rabbit "nearly cold", as the recipe directs, makes it easier to handle: cool joints are firmer and separate more cleanly at the hip and shoulder sockets.
- How to joint itTwo hind legs, two front legs (the "shoulders"), and the saddle cut crosswise into two or three pieces. The ribcage and belly flap are thin and best kept back for stock rather than fried.
- "Crumbs" means dry breadcrumbs"Crumbs" means breadcrumbs -- Period recipes often call for stale bread grated or rubbed through a sieve, giving something closer to modern fine dry crumbs, though fresh crumbs are also called for elsewhere. Panko is coarser but works; fine soft crumbs are more likely to scorch before the meat is through.
- Egg yolk aloneThe recipe specifies yolk rather than whole egg, which gives a richer coating that colours faster. Thin it with a spoonful of water or milk if it is too thick to brush on evenly.
- Fat and heatFry in about half an inch of dripping, lard or a neutral oil at roughly 340-350F/170-175C. Hotter than that and the crumbs darken while the legs are still cool inside; the hind legs want 12-15 minutes, the front legs and saddle pieces less.
- Farmed versus wildFarmed rabbit is tender and predictable. A wild rabbit, especially an older one, has tougher, drier muscle and is better braised than fried; if you do fry it, the initial boil can be extended considerably.
- Yield and servingOne rabbit of 2.5-3 lb feeds three or four. Accompaniments commonly suggested in books of the period include a plain gravy or a sharp sauce, fried parsley, and bacon rashers.
Rabbit was one of the cheaper meats in Victorian Britain, sold by street hawkers and butchers alike, and cookery books of the period carry numerous ways to treat it: boiled with onion sauce, jugged, curried, potted, and fried like this. The parboil-then-crumb-and-fry technique is also applied to other lean pale meats such as veal and sweetbreads in books of the same period, so it reads as a general method rather than anything specific to rabbit.