WILD RABBIT

Rabbits come from the same family as hares but are smaller and mostly nocturnal. Wild rabbits grow up to 45 centimeters long and weigh a couple of kilos.

Keep in mind

There isn’t much meat on a wild rabbit and you’ll get about a kilo per animal if you’re lucky. Make sure you’ve got enough to go round when inviting guests to dinner.

The meat is lighter than that of a hare and both the mild flavor and the consistency mean that rabbit is similar to chicken. Replacing ordinary chicken with wild rabbit in a recipe often works well.

How to cook wild rabbit

Slow-cook a whole rabbit, French-style: Cut up your rabbit – it isn’t very different from butchering a chicken. Brown it and cook with fried onion, garlic, bacon, wine, thyme and chicken stock for an hour or two. Then remove the rabbit and turn the juices into a mustard sauce by adding cream – and mustard. Return the rabbit to the pan and enjoy.

Or make a Spanish paella, replacing the chicken with small pieces of rabbit – apparently this was the original recipe.

You’ll find more ideas for cooking small game under cooking game.

The classic

Saffron paella with rabbit, chorizo and blue mussels.