Ingredient

Rabbit

Rabbit is extremely lean, mild and finely grained, and the single most useful thing to know about it is that one animal contains two entirely different cooking problems. The legs want long slow cooking; the saddle wants fast heat and almost none of it.

Two animals in one

A rabbit's hind legs do all the work and are full of connective tissue. The saddle — the loin along the back — does almost none and is a lean, fine, quick-cooking muscle rather like a small fillet.

Cook a whole jointed rabbit for the two hours the legs need and the saddle will be dry and stringy. Cook it for the eight minutes the saddle needs and the legs will be inedible.

The standard answer is to joint the animal and cook the parts separately, or to braise the legs and add the saddle for the last few minutes. Recipes that ignore this are the reason rabbit has a reputation for dryness.

Wild and farmed

Farmed

Larger, paler, milder, more tender, more fat. Consistent and available. What most butchers sell.

Wild

Smaller, darker, leaner, more strongly flavoured and much more variable. Cheaper, and the legs of an older animal need serious time.

Age

A young wild rabbit can be roasted; an old one can only be braised. Ask, or assume the latter.

Size

A farmed rabbit feeds three or four; a wild one two.

Jointing

Two hind legs, two front legs, the saddle in two or three pieces, and the ribcage for stock. A butcher will do it.

Cooking each part

• Hind legs — braise. Ninety minutes to two hours in cider, white wine or stock with mustard, bacon and thyme.
• Front legs — braise, or use for stock. Small and sinewy, and best treated like the hind legs.
• Saddle — fast. Pan-fried whole and rested, or boned out and rolled around a stuffing and roasted briefly.
• Whole young rabbit — roast, barded with bacon or streaky fat, which is essential because the meat has none of its own.
• Rillettes, cooked slowly in fat and shredded — an excellent use for a whole animal.
• Rabbit and prune stew, or with mustard and cream, both of which are classic French treatments.
• The liver and kidneys are usually included and should be fried fast and eaten by the cook.

A mustard and cider braise

1. Joint the rabbit and set the saddle aside.
2. Season and brown the legs in butter and oil. They brown slowly because they are so lean, so be patient.
3. Set them aside and cook chopped bacon, onion and a little garlic in the same pan.
4. Stir in a generous spoonful of Dijon mustard, then deglaze with cider and let it bubble.
5. Return the legs with stock to come most of the way up, add thyme and a bay leaf, cover, and cook gently for ninety minutes.
6. Add the saddle pieces for the final ten to twelve minutes only.
7. Lift everything out, reduce the liquid, stir in cream and more mustard off the heat, and pour it back over.

Common questions