Silver Fox Rabbits

We bought our Silver Fox rabbits on February 14, 2009.  The doe (the kids named her Valentine) was already bred when we got her and we purchased a buck, Buddy, to breed her to later.   A few weeks after getting them home, Valentine produced her first litter of four kits (gestation is only 28 to 32 days) - two boys and two girls.  We sold the two boys as meat and kept the two girls to increase our breeding stock. 

After weaning the babies, it was time to rebreed Valentine.  We put her in the cage with Buddy and he showed great interest.  However, a month later there were no babies.  We tried again, leaving her in there longer.  Still no babies.  Eventually the other two girls were old enough to breed.  We put them in the cage with Buddy, still nothing.  We tried leaving the females in the cage with him for a few weeks, we tried holding the girls still for him, nothing was working.   Fortunately the American Rabbit Breeders Association Convention was in San Diego in November of last year.  There I was able to find a young buck available for sale.  Once he was old enough to breed, we introduced him to our girls and it was "love at first sight".   A month later we had babies, lots and lots of babies.  We ended up with 17 kits from the three litters. 

A few weeks after the birth of these litters, we rebred the mamas.  But we forgot how fast time goes by, the next litters were due and all of our cages were full.  It was time for the young rabbits to realize their purpose - to provide us with healthy, hopefully delicious protein.  We had never actually eaten rabbit before, this was an enterprise we jumped into trusting that we would be satisfied with the final product.  Last Tuesday, the time came to test the wisdom of that decision.

From all that I have read and heard, rabbit can be substituted in any recipe calling for chicken.  But for our first trial I wanted to try a recipe that specified rabbit.  I have a great cookbook by Shannon Hayes called The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook that I really like.  The cookbook is full of interesting profiles of farmers and informative articles on things like what to expect when buying direct from a farmer, what the cutting options are if you buy a side of beef or pork, and what the differences are between meat from grassfed animals and conventionally raised animals.  The cookbook has a recipe "Braised Rabbit with Mustard and Rosemary Sauce" that sounded good (and easy) and so that is what I tried.

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 rabbit, about 3 1/2 lbs., cut into 8 pieces
4 to 6 tablespoons butter
1 chopped onion
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl.  Dredge the meat in this flour mixture, and set aside.  Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy, deep skillet (I just used my dutch oven).  Brown the rabbit on all sides, about 4 minutes per side, remove to a dish, and keep warm.  If necessary, add more butter to the skillet while browning the meat.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet.  Saute the onions over medium heat until translucent.  Add the wine and broth, and simmer until the sauce is reduced by one-third, scraping up any browned bits.  Return the rabbit to the skillet, cover, and simmer over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, or until tender.

Remove the rabbit to a warm platter, and tent loosely with foil.  Continue simmering the sauce until reduced by half, stirring often and scraping up any browned bits.  Whisk in the mustard and rosemary.  Simmer until thickened.  Spoon sauce over rabbit, and serve.

The end result - I overcooked it!  I left the pot simmering and went out to milk the cow.  It took a little longer than I expected and some of the smaller pieces ended up a little drier than they should have. 

I have always heard that rabbit "tastes like chicken," chef Mark Bittman says that domesticated rabbit tastes like chicken because both are blank palettes upon which any desired flavors can be layered.  I thought that the rabbit was actually milder tasting than chicken.  In the end, everyone here enjoyed their dinner and they all said they would eat rabbit again, which is a good thing since we have a bunch of them in the freezer.

Some of my favorite sites:
http://www.grassfedcooking.com/  Shannon Hayes website - I can't recommend her book highly enough.
http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/silverfox.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_of_Taste
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/cleanplatecharlie/2008/08/rabbit_run.php  I found this site when I was first researching rabbits.  I plan on trying the Tagliatelle with Rabbit Fricassee next weekend.