Rabbit Stock

I made rabbit stock with the rest of my rabbit pieces and bones and some vegetables I bought at Jesus. It's pretty good, but it doesn't taste very rabbity. I bought Andrew a stock pot for Christmas and this was the first time anyone used it. (What a self-serving gift, eh?) It tastes like good vegetable stock though. I used all the celery you see, the whole bag of carrots, the onion, another red onion, the shallot, the fresh thyme, and the cremini mushrooms. And salt and pepper. The vegetables/thyme cost me $6. That seemed pretty good.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all this stock.

Rabbit Cacciatore

For my birthday, my friends Bill and Gideon went to some place in Bushwick and picked out a rabbit for me by pointing at it and had it killed for me. Thankfully they answered yes when asked if they wanted to have the fur removed. I received this thing in a plastic bag.

The day after my birthday I already had plans. Same for New Year's. The next day, Ravi invited me over to eat lamb. I was starting to fret that this bunny would go bad. So I cooked it yesterday even though Bill couldn't make it. He can come eat leftovers if he's less tortoise and more hare about this whole thing.

First I studied this Saveur guide to butchering a rabbit. The main differences between their guide and my rabbit were that I still had a head on mine, I still had organs in mine, and they have sharp knives. They also give instructions like "then remove the bones from the leg." Easier said than done!

I decided to make rabbit cacciatore. I thought it was familiar, but later I realized it only sounded familiar because I used to watch so much Camp Candy. The other rabbit dish I could think of, hasenpfeffer, is thickened with the blood of the rabbit, according to wikipedia. I didn't need all that. Yes, I use wikipedia for recipes. It told me what goes in it so I do it. I decided to serve it over polenta with a salad and some bread. Into my cacciatore I put 2 red onions, 8 oz of quartered button mushrooms, a green pepper cut into chunks, a thinly sliced carrot, a can of whole canned tomatoes mashed up a bit, a few glugs of whatever wine we were drinking, as much turkey stock as was melted and pourable by the time I wanted to add turkey stock, garlic powder (I thought I had real garlic around but didn't), and herbes de provence that Callie gave me for Christmas. I should have added more salt. It tasted significantly better when I salted it and the rabbit didn't taste as much like chicken.

In the end, it looked like this. Not bad.

I know it's impolite to ask how much something cost, but I really was curious about how much a rabbit goes for so I could think about doing it again maybe. So I asked. Gideon told me about $30 for that rabbit. "I'm not worth $30!" I recoiled. But I liked the stewing aspect of the meal a lot so maybe I will stew some cheap meats. I will stew eggs. (Bill and Gid also got me eggs.)

I still have the bones and organs and the meat I couldn't get off the bones so I think I'll make stock tomorrow. I got Andrew a stock pot for Christmas and I guess I will be the one to break it in. I don't let things go to waste much. I'm also probably better at making stock than I was butchering an animal.