0:36 It's ironic, because one of the species of hare that we do have in America is the white-tailed jackrabbit, which has the binomial name of Lepus Townsendii. :)
I was thinking the EXACT same thing when it comes to the blacktail jackrabbit that is viewed as a nuisance on the West coast. I guess we didn't know how great the entire country would eventually be in the future.
I love this series because it actually feels like he knows how to cook, and it helps me learn. Its different than following an exact recipe. Face it, the specific measurements of modern recipes are kind of arbitrary, and anyone can follow a sheet of instructions. But cooking like this requires a more general understanding of cooking, an actual intuitive way to tweak what you are making based on your food, dishes, oven, and so on. Ingredients are general measurements because that is all you need, cooking times aren't precise because they WILL vary based on certain factors.
Ellie Gray I know how you feel, I mostly just use recipes and videos for reference but then always try to change it to something that I feel would go well together. Trusting your guts and experience really helps with cooking. Only baking can sometimes be a bit more like chemistry, where not straying too far from the path can be a good idea. XD
Exact recipes tend to be more detrimental to the average cook (baking is entirely different) beginners and mid level cooks tend to get so bogged down by them when most of cooking is all about how it feels and what you want
I'm sure you made Paul McKenzies day! We have a friend over here in Hawaii who raises rabbits for meat so we have rabbit as often as we like. I think this recipe well worth a try, as I usually just bake mine with potatoe's and carrots or make rabbit stew. Thanks for showing us yet another wonderful recipe it looks delicious.
Mace is the outer mantle of nutmeg kernels, so nutmeg is a great substitute. I once jugged a leveret in English brown ale and it was really good, but I lost the recipe. Great viewing as always!
Jack Rabbits are hares. FWI if you live in the western U.S. I have tried them fried like cottontail or barn rabbits but they are like shoe leather. However if you braise them low and slow like a beef or lamb shank they come out surprisingly delicious. Just make sure you season them the way you like and yes.....add a spoonful of lard to the pot. This old timey technique would work well with them.....just cook them till you think they are done then add an hour lol. Thanks Jon.
thanks for the tip, I moved to Nevada this year and plan to try and get a few jackrabbits this year. it'll be interesting since I've never hunted before! I had always heard that you should slow cook rabbit and hare though like in stew or a recipe like this one though.
Coq au vin; similar idea, only acidic wine is used in that recipe. What did your family use for a braising liquid? Water? Stock? Some alcohol of some kind (think coq au vin)? Some acid like a little cider vinegar too? Something else? I could imagine an American rabbit version of coq au vin using some hard cinder and cinder vinegar mixed with some rabbit stock and barely any flour as a fine braising liquid that would thicken to a very thing gravy.
Oh that took me back to my childhood. We raised rabbits and ate them on a regular basis. We used cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup and add vegetable and it was more like a stew. Thanks for what you do and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at Townsends.
Thanks Paul McKenzie and jTownsend for reaffirming my experience cooking rabbit. Low and slow is best for tender meat. Can also be brine to break down the muscle
When ever I come here I wish we had a 'smell a phone'- cause everything always looks so yummy! Thank you & your buds for being such good teachers & makeing it fun to learn!
I saw this being cooked when I was much younger - the smell was awful, but then I do hate strong gamey smells. The blood of the hare was black and used in the sauce. The lard was threaded with a huge needle through the meat. The hare was in rich red wine ( port I think). I was told it was difficult to get the hare to be acceptable for the table. Some Hare’s are HUGE here - bigger than foxes - so that means a lot of meat !
Having the blood in might have added to the smell you disliked. For the gaminess there are a lot of steps you can take, which Jon's rabbit apparently had done. First, you have to dress it immediately after death. Get the blood, the organs, and the offal out! You can still save them if you want to use them, some people really like the liver (which is nothing like a chicken liver). Immediately put everything you want to keep on ice. Second, when ready to cook, after cutting it up soak it in buttermilk overnight. If you've done the first two there's no gaminess at all left for a rabbit at this point. If you have one that's still gamey (a bad sign, but we never had ones as large as yours) you can use a marinade. Ones with wine or fruit juice are good. Basically anything acidic. The port doesn't really work for that because it's too sweet, but it sounds like they were cooking it in the port rather than marinating, so trying to add flavors rather than remove bad ones. Even with all that the gaminess can linger in the fat for wild animals, so normally you remove that just before serving, but there's not a lot of it on a hare to start with.
We were raising rabbits for food in town during the 70s and 80s (rabbit is considered pets not livestock so we could do that). Rabbit liver is delicious! Does NOT taste like chicken. :o) For us, slow cooking in a crock pot or in an oven roasting bag worked well. It is a VERY lean meat. We would save the little bit of fat found on each rabbit until we had a largish amount then use it to make rabbit sausage. Yum!
I think it's better than beef liver, similar texture way more mild flavor. Unless you like the mineral flavor I soak beef liver in milk 8 hrs prior to cooking, rabbit liver goes directly on the skillet.
I agree with all of that. I like to put dried basil in the flour that I dredge the livers in before frying. Haven't tried nutmeg, though. LOL Also, the fresher you can get the rabbit livers, the better (and for me, that applies to beef/calves livers as well).
We did not lard the rabbits. Our favorite "liquid" was BBQ sauce :o) in the oven roasting bag. In the crockpot we just used liquid that we have been saving from cooked chicken, drained vegetables, etc. A pretty eclectic "soup" of things. And lots of fresh veggies which provided their own liquid (carrots, onions, celery, etc.) - the kinds of veggies you would put in a soup or stew. Always seemed to work out well. Just made sure that we cooked the rabbit low and slow until it was falling off the bones.
I was literally screaming "LARD IT!!" until the "I told you so" moment came :D . No need to inject anything. Just add a few slices of bacon on the pieces of rabbit and it will do just fine. Cool recipe, by the way, I have to try it sometime. Also, I dig your channel ,pure and simple :). Did you add just thyme or rosemary also?
I have been watching this show for the past year now and have enjoyed it very much:) Thank you for sharing all of the old styles of the ways that paved for great culinary! I just wanted to share my appreciation :)
Larding is easy. I used to have a larding needle (for a big cut of meat) but if you make a slice with a sharp knife, then you can slide a strip of suet or bacon into the meat. One time I had a roast of a very tough old moose, and I larded the hell out of it, put it in a dutch oven with a can of beer, a can of tomato sauce and some onions and carrots. Cooked it 3 hours in the oven and the old tough moose was delicious- kids ate it all up- no leftovers. I highly recommend larding.
My family raised rabbits in the 70's.We sold them like everyone else that raised them,they were available in grocery stores at a very reasonable price.This all ended when Australia began importing them,and undercutting the price to the point we couldn't sell our higher quality rabbit for enough to pay for their food,never mind making a profit.Then when all the domestic producers went bust,they raised the price to the level nobody would buy them.Kinda shot themselves in the foot.Anyway,that's why rabbit is so hard to find in the US.Our family ended up with a whole bunch of rabbit we couldn't sell,so we ate them.ALL of them.We ate rabbit nonstop ,in every way you could imagine.It still is difficult for me to eat rabbit to this day,40 some odd years later.luckily it appears that the industry may be coming back,my wife found it offered at our local supermarket.Still expensive,but if it catches on,maybe the price will come down.
@Duke And so should any competent man who isn’t dependent on someone else to take care of him. Basic self-care skills are something everyone should know. ;)
@@nessamillikan6247 Spare us your feminist BS. A good woman is one who cooks. That's a quality in women that men are attracted to. No man likes feminist crap. So if you want to act like one, be prepared to spend life alone.
Thanks for your videos. I used to raise rabbits and cook them, and hunt jackrabbits (European hare), and cook those too. I think if the rabbit was a bit dry and tough it may be because similar to chicken breast it is best cooked hot and quick, while the hare is like chicken thighs, which can withstand, or even improve from, longer cooking times or braising.
In Britain, during WWII, when meat was rationed, rabbit became popular, because it was not only unrationed, but rabbits require minimal space, eat greens (not grains, which humans need), and breed very quickly. Many people bred them at home.
Thanks for your perseverance Paul! John, this was one of my favorite episodes yet. I had never heard or thought about "baking" something in boiling water. Learned lots of good stuff from this one and the meal in general looks delicious. I was already planning on raising a few rabbits starting next year; once they mature this will be the first recipe I try.
When you go shopping for the ingredients for recipes on the show (or just any errands you do), do you ever wear your 17th century clothes? Like you're just in the supermarket with a basket full of nutmeg, and you just take people for a whirl by putting on the tricorn? I think it'd be fun just for the heck of it
Jackson Williams he did a video doing just that. He lives in a very small town. No one would be surprised to see him in costume, because he makes and sells them.
I work at a whole foods/Bulk store. Every Columbus week I see people from the Renaissance Faire come in full custome for squash, lettuce, and chickens.
Jugged Hare, 18th century sous vide, lol? Thank you, this was fun. North America does have hare, snowshoe and jackrabbits, I don't know if they are in the eastern US though. I'm glad you did not mention that the blood was mixed with vinegar then added at the last to thicken the juices, people did utilize every bit of an animal, not a bad idea.
Larding is still done, mainly with leaner meats. I do something similar with turkey or cornish game hens (chicken is usually fatty enough) but with butter. Just mix finely minced herbs like rosemary, thyme, and sage and mix it with butter (grinding it with a mortar and pestle is optional) and put the butter in between the skin and meat before baking/roasting the whole bird. If you put it on the outside of the animal then the fat just melts off but if you put it inbetween the skin and meat, the skin will hold it in place and allow it to soak into the meat and can help the skin turn golden brown and also help prevent the skin from burning in a long roast. jugging was an important but forgotten food preservation method. If done correctly the foods can last a surprisingly long time since you're essentially canning the food, only using a layer of fat instead of a lid. He did something like that in his "potted beef" recipe.
@@arthas640 I normally don't like turkey much, but turkey with bacon? Really nice. I've larded a rabbit with bacon, too, and it was great. It definitely is a step worth including.
We were eating rabbit in the early 1960's in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee----fried or rabbit 'n dumplings! YEAH! Groundhog too! Yummy! Cheers!
Larding,from my knowledge,was done by sewing in bits of bacon. Use needle,and thread to pull lard strips through meat,cutting threaded bit off,leaving just lard strip through the meat!
And some may note that one of the causes for larding with hare/rabbit, was to prevent what was known as "Rabbit Starvation". With particularly lean meats, it was easy have lots of protein, but not the fats you needed to keep alive. So you had severely reduced caloric intake, and eventually would die. Larding (and suet which features prominently in pemmican) added vital fats that would help you keep up with gruelingly cold temperatures, both to keep your energy up, and keep enough fat to prevent hypothermia.
As a fellow small-town Hoosier, I have a hard time with you having to purchase a farm rabbit. There is no shortage of folks right there in your town who could have provided you the real (and far more tasty) deal. Your trepidation was palpable throughout this whole video and I admit I did chuckle watching you squirm. Love your videos, keep up the great work. Don't take any of the recipe warriors to heart in these comments. Every country grandma has a rabbit recipe that her kids will swear is the best. You'd have fewer complaints about a chili recipe.
Great recipe ! Save your bacon drippings and filter it through a fine sieve as you pour it into the storage jar. You can use bacon dripping for larding plus adding another layer of flavor. I have seen the onion-clove trick used here in Greece as well. The onion also imparts its flavor as well to the dish.
For larding dryer meats, I have found butter to be second to only bacon or sausage drippings. Salted smoked jowls is very close. As for rabbits, they used to run thick in Oklahoma. Up to the late 1970's Farmers would pay us to shoot them. As a kid, I would pick up the kill and throw them in the follow pick up after the combines harvested a field. Typically, 160 acre field would have half a pickup bed of cottontails or Jack rabbits. The lead truck usually had 3 shooters with 22 pumps. One had the left, one the middle, one the right. During the great depression and WW2, rabbits kept my parents fed. Mom still hates rabbit. Take care from Oklahoma, Mike and Vee
There's a channel called Supersizers do the Regency era, speaks of the Jugged Hare, as originally a hunter's recipe, but became popular with the gentry following the enclosures act.
I remember that episode, it's a bit upsetting, she followed the recipes to the letter but on a modern cooker which threw everything off. The jugged hair was awful and the beef was dry amd hard. The yorkshire pud was crispy though.
Larding is done in two ways. The first is when you make an incision in the meat but not all the way through so your meat opens like a book. You put your fat in thin slices and fold the meat back. The other way is taking a long baton of the fat and putting it through using a larding needle, a v shaped knife/needle like device which pushes the fat through the meat.
Fantastic, I live in Malta and there is plenty of rabbits at the butcher, so this is something i will try, but i will be wraping the rabbit in bacon before putting it in the pott, the smokiness will add to the flavor and the fat will marinate in to the rabbit meat.
Sorry Lurker1954, ... Here's the definition:Tularemia - also called rabbit fever or deer fly fever - is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. The disease mainly affects mammals, especially rodents, rabbits and hares, although it can also infect birds, sheep, and domestic animals, such as dogs, cats and hamsters.
While Tularemia is sometimes called Rabbit Fever, it is not the only thing. The Original condition was a nutritional disease caused by the bodies inability to fully metabolize protein without fat. It is the reason proper Diet Plans include salad oil or some such in the meal plans. Nutritional Diseases were a major bane before Captain Cook's day. Protecting his crew from another one (Scurvy) was the reason his men love him so much. The British Navy came up with the answer to that one in the humble Lime. Every sailor was issued a quantity of Lime Juice every day. The Answer to Rabbit Fever was rather obvious, some people didn't get it. Those who fried their rabbits in bacon fat never suffered from it. Or they didn't eat lean meat at all.
Rabbit is one of my favorite meats- young cottontail rabbits and young domestic (European) rabbits are absolutely divine. Older ones are tougher and need to be braised, the youngsters can be fried like chicken or marinated and grilled. Jackrabbits and snowshoe rabbits are hares, and need slightly different treatment. I shot a jackrabbit once as a kid, and tried to fry it like a cottontail- big big mistake. The meat on a jackrabbit is dark purple like venison or mutton, and very tough, because jackrabbits 'work' (run around) for a living. One old recipe I recall for jugged hare was a hare cooked in a jug of its own blood with plenty of spices and strong port wine- not for the faint of heart, but probably a really impressive meal to show off during special occasions. Also, if you hunt or handle wild rabbits, beware of tularemia (aka rabbit fever). ALWAYS use disposable gloves and thoroughly cook the meat.
I'd give anything to surround myself with a similar colonial-style atmosphere in my home. What a comfortable and enjoyable video. How apropos as I have a rabbit defrosting on my counter for tomorrow's dinner! I would add Extra virgin Olive Oil to this dish. It's not part of the original recipe, but it's how the rabbit would have been cooked in Italy, including garlic, rosemary, and white wine.
I WAS RAISED ON RABBIT AND SQUIRRE. MOM WOULD DREDGE THE RABBIT IN FLOUR AND FRY IT. THEN SHE WOULD MAKE RABBIT GRAVY AND PUT THE FRIED RABBIT IN THE GRAVY AND SIMMER IT FOR QUITE AWHILE. THE RABBIT WOULD SOME OUT TENDER AND DELICIOUS. SHE DID THE SAME FOR SQUIRREL. I WOULD WRAP THE RABBIT IN BACON IN YOUR RECIPE. YUMMY!
To go with Thanksgiving: A Scottish dish : Clapshot 1. Lb. Potatoes, peeled 1. Lb. Turnips, peeled ( Add some drippings or butter) 1. Small onion Salt & ground pepper Chives or parsley garnish Biol, drain, & dry potatoes & turnips. Chop the onion & fry until clear in drippings,or butter. Mash the potatoes & turnips together, place in the pan with inion, & heat through. Season well & serve hot with a dollop of butter & a chive or parsley garnish. ( Serves. 4-6) Enjoy!
Larding was sometimes done with a larding knife. Or a narrow bladed knife. Pierce the thicker sections of the meat....and fill the holes with whatever.....anchovies.....bacon...suet...etc. Or! Wrap the item in the bacon...caul fat...etc.
Great video and I'm going to have to try this. One hint about Farm Raised Rabbits, they, unlike wild Rabbits have some Fat on them. This Fat is the most disgusting Fat I have ever run into as it doesn't render while cooking. I have found that rinsing the Rabbit under cold water while scrubbing with a brush will remove the Fat. As for the Larding. I think just placing a small amount of Lard with small pieces of Bacon on top of the Rabbit before adding the Onion and Herbs would work wonders. Ed
I was raised on rabbit , duck, squirrel, deer sausage as well as canned vegetables from the garden and dewberry dumplings from fresh pickes berries. I love this UTube channel . Its fabulous. I am glad I found it.
I have two rabbits in the freezer now that I've been shy of cooking. The friends I got them from made a rabbit stew for a gathering and I was not happy with how dry the meat was. I think I will lard mine when I cook it. Thanks for that video. This gave me more information that I needed to get those rabbits out of the freezer and onto my plate.
I've made jugged hare many times. I always assumed it was more of a stew than a dry dish, but I suppose that's what it evolved into. I use the spices you do except the marjoram, and I also put in juniper berries. I seal the meat, I also put in pork belly, then stew it for 3 hours. The liquid I stew it in is usually a mix of homemade beef and chicken stock, and a small amount of the hare's blood (I hunt the hare myself when there's an abundance locally, you never want to take a wild hare if there aren't many around. When there are lots of them, I will shoot one, drain it's blood straight after I've shot it, and then gut it. I'll also use the pelts). After 3 hours it's a rich, thick stew that is best paired with potatoes as eating it as a stew, even though I put vegetables in, is just a bit hard on your stomach.
Spanish supermarkets like 'Bravo' carry rabbit in the meat section. Very good quality. Bravo also carries goat, lamb, mutton, grouse, and so many other delicious meats.
I really appreciate videos like this. There aren't many of us that like historical food :) The paste seal is widely used, extremely strong, and not talked about. Clean up is a pain since it is so effective. Talking about milling is a different subject :D
Possum and raccoon was also jugged, they are delicious when jugged. I never thought of using a pot of water to cook my jugged meal. I imagine this would work with jugged beans. Thank you for bringing back the old cooking methods and recipes.
Rabbit was widely eaten in Australia until they introduced myxomatosis to the feral population over here. They were one of the cheapest meats and so were eaten quite often, particularly by people on lower incomes. Nowadays they're very expensive and much harder to come by, but we ate rabbit an awful lot when I was a kid. We mainly had it stewed with veggies but we'd often have it baked for Sunday lunch and it lends itself very nicely to currying as well.
I'll try this as sous vide! I can "jug" it in a canning jar. There are no recipes listed for rabbit in the sous vide cookbooks I've found, and I DO rely on rabbit as a meat that isn't fed corn (I'm that allergic to corn) and I might add butter (can't use bacon or lard for the same reasons I can't eat chicken, pork or conventional beef) and possibly a smoked salt to give the illusion of bacon. It happens I have my TummyDay Bunny thawing in the kitchen right now. Was wondering what I'd do with it... Thanks.
Does a corn allergy really come into play when eating the meat of an animal? I'm not sure, that sounds really strange to me seeing as the rabbit has already converted the corn to muscle. How do you eat any livestock at all? most of them are fed corn at one time in their lives.
Jen Porta grass fed animals are different at a biochemical level. You can google it :) Corn fed livestock also probably has antibiotics and hormones which some people react to. It sounds like oc can't have any conventional livestock. S/he's not alone! Remember it was not very long ago "conventional" anything didn't exist - everything was organic and pasture raised/free range/etc. We evolved as hunter gatherers.
"Jugging" it in a canning jar. I had not thought of that! Thanks for sharing the idea. I have quart and half gallon size Ball/Mason canning jars that I could try. Then put the jar into the water-bath canning pot to cook the rabbit. Cool, I have all the equipment from making jam.
You can do a similar cooking process. Its called confit ( cooked in fat). Do everything the same just top off the pot with oil. Cook it nice and slow. The flavor is great and you also have a preserving method. Cuts off air to the meat once its done so it won't spoil
Coat the inside of a whole rabbit with a thick (1/4" or so) layer of lard and stuff with thyme, rosemary and sage with a chopped lemon and a ships biscuit crumbled and evenly distributed. Truss and hang roast near a medium fire with a drip pan with butter and or lard and same herbs for basting. Serve with baked beans and cornbread.
If anyone is wondering how larding is done I've seen it on a documentary, either Fannie Farmer's Supper (or something along those lines, she was a cook book author and ran the Boston Cooking School) or maybe something with Ruth Goodman where they did it to some Venison, they just put little strips of fat from other meat through little slits all over the side of venison. Love the show!
Thank you for the new way to cook rabbit. I've used a slow cooker before but never thought about using a double boiler essentially. Can't wait to try this.
Yay rabbit not too much of a way to mess up rabbit its good just about anyway you cook it even on a spit over open fire. More game please squirrels, pheasant just what ever you can come up with.
My family usually had Rabbit at Easter. Seemed appropriate, was served without chocolate sauce, but I'll be you could whip of a mole sauce (did I spell that right?) that would suit a bunny.
Remember enjoying my Gran's jugged hare on the farm in Devon, England back in the. 1950s. The sauce was finished with the blood of the hare added to the cooking liquor at the end, then reduced by half to concentrate the flavour. Accompanied by strong green vegetables, such as turnip tops, and boiled potatoes. Has to be specially ordered from the butcher (if you're lucky!) but best if you can source it from a local shoot.
This was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be! Your videos are always interesting, but I thought I'd be somewhat grossed out by this for some reason. I also always thought rabbit meat would be a different color when cooked (not sure why). Thank you for the interesting, entertaining, and informative video!
Here in the UK I've shot and cooked quite a few Hares over the years. It's a lot larger and gamer than Rabbit and we never ever cook it dry. When we JUG ours we dredge it first in seasoned flour and fry it till it has some colour. Then add it with herbs, onions and carrots to an iron pot and cover it in stout (Guinness) or sometimes Port and some reduced beef stock. We lid the pot then cook it slowly for 4-6 hours. If it's done right the meat literally falls from the bones...
The "rabbits" we have here in Maine are indeed Varying hares. We always just drape bacon over the top of the naturally dry meat. I like to make a pot pie with canned turkey gravy for the liquid. Add carrots, peas, a little onion and potatoes to the meat which was cut up fine and browned with onions. Place a nice crust on top and enjoy!
@townsends, how did they perserve bacon? I read my ancestor was given bacon for his march to one of the Rev. War battles and he sat in court (he was a Justice of Peace) listening to people get their items back, and one was bacon. Is it the same as pork chops?
Bacon in those days would have been dry cured rather than cured in brine (modern method). If you've watched the salt pork episode from a few years ago now it's a similar process (sort of). Basically the salt is used as a dessicant to draw moisture out and dry the meat, the dryer you can get the meat, the less microbes are able to penetrate and spoil the meat (they also don't like a high salt environment either). They also would have stored it in a dry cool place like a cellar.
@robertleitch : If you were traveling to a battlefield, that was..half a days 'march', how would they carry it in the perserving it as well? Thank you :) :). I love the past, so interesting! :) .
@Rachel Not really sure about packing for transport, it would depend on the situation I suppose. Maybe packed in barrels if it was a large amount intended for a field kitchen or for distribution, down to maybe as simple as a clean cloth if it was only a single meal/days worth. And as mentioned it would have been smoked as well for extended preservation over longer periods.
Hare and rabbit are different. We have both in Australia but hares are larger and mate for life and as a result of people shooting them, they don't breed once one "partner" is shot. Rabbits however..... breed like rabbits. I have eaten quite a bit of rabbit and often boil them. HUGE amount of gelatin. If you can manage to get the meat thin and SHALLOW FRY it in a frying pan it will come out like the best fried chicken you've had! You will have to cut it off the bones to stop it from arching up above the pan though.
I love your channel - the mix of historical anthropology with cooking is fantastic, and you're a very pleasant host! Thank you for doing these videos. :)
Hare is much closer in flavor to beef. Using Rabbit, particularly farmed, instead of hare will produce a disappointing result in comparison to using hare. You should be using the hares blood as well......otherwise it isn't a true jugged hare!!! If you can't use blood as the sauce then use port wine and some thickening agent. Your final result looks nothing like jugged hare...it should have a thick dark sauce/gravy. Edit: my grandmothers recipe( not overly secret) Jointed hare, plus the blood, 4 oz streaky bacon( rind-less), 4 oz chopped smoked ham, salt and pepper, 6 shallots peeled and finely chopped, 2 medium onions coarsely chopped, 1/4 pint dry red wine , 1/4 pint poultry stock( game bird stock is supposed to be best). Juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 sweet orange. Fresh chopped herbs 1/4 teaspoon of ground mace, 4 cloves, 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel. 4 heaped tablespoons of plain flour, mashed butter( with a fork) 1/2 -3/4 pint hares blood. Do everything as per the video( minus the blood). When finished cooking, remove the meat from the jug. Strain any excess fat( from the bacon and ham) off the stock which you then thicken using the hares blood and mashed butter. Note get the blood fresh, and to stop it curdling mix it with a heaped teaspoon of flour. Add the blood to the stock in the jug( after removing the cooked hare portions.) then the mashed butter( not the other way round). Heat the now thickened liquid gently and then pour over the still hot Pieces of hare. As some one else noted in the USA Hare = Jack Rabbit... using normal Rabbits results in a substandard dish. Rabbit is too close to chicken and lacks the depth of flavor necessary for jugged Hare.
Yup every jackrabbit (which is a species of hare native to North America) I've ever killed had dark purple meat, it looked more like venison or mutton than domestic rabbit (or even a wild cottontail). They're also real tough buggers, taste pretty strong and need careful treatment in the kitchen to do them justice. I recall reading that 'true' jugged hare required the use of the hare's blood, never tried it and probably never will, but if I ever shoot another jackrabbit I may just keep it in mind. :)
THANK YOU
About time you get your rabbit
ruclips.net/video/3GwjfUFyY6M/видео.html
I hope you're happy now! ;P
You were my first thought when this episode showed up in my feed XD
And the world rejoices but you need to figure out what to comment now
0:36
It's ironic, because one of the species of hare that we do have in America is the white-tailed jackrabbit, which has the binomial name of Lepus Townsendii. :)
I was thinking the EXACT same thing when it comes to the blacktail jackrabbit that is viewed as a nuisance on the West coast. I guess we didn't know how great the entire country would eventually be in the future.
In the north east we have snowshoe hare .
This really sounds like an accountant by trade comment.
That is funny!
During WW2, people raised rabbits for food use because of the meat rationing of beef.
That one commenter that always asks for rabbit cooking must be so happy lol
J Girl He is!
You betcha! Next up: SQUIRREL
I would love to see some squirrel cooking!
Great. Now I have a picture in my head of a squirrel out in the woods, cooking walnuts in a little saucepan. Using NUTmeg of course :)
Shouldn't that be "GRATE" rather than "great?"
:)
He’s like the Bob Ross of old time cooking. Good stuff
Rabbit is fine, some dont like hare in their food
hehe, that was a good one.
Lol classic
more than a mouth full!
Well done! 😉
Hahahahah
I love this series because it actually feels like he knows how to cook, and it helps me learn. Its different than following an exact recipe. Face it, the specific measurements of modern recipes are kind of arbitrary, and anyone can follow a sheet of instructions. But cooking like this requires a more general understanding of cooking, an actual intuitive way to tweak what you are making based on your food, dishes, oven, and so on. Ingredients are general measurements because that is all you need, cooking times aren't precise because they WILL vary based on certain factors.
Ellie Gray I know how you feel, I mostly just use recipes and videos for reference but then always try to change it to something that I feel would go well together. Trusting your guts and experience really helps with cooking. Only baking can sometimes be a bit more like chemistry, where not straying too far from the path can be a good idea. XD
Ellie Gray While I do agree with you 100%, that profile picture distracted me.
I agree. I learn with recipes initially, a lot of times I just throw stuff together and wing it though
Chemistry is vast and demands ultimate respect
Exact recipes tend to be more detrimental to the average cook (baking is entirely different) beginners and mid level cooks tend to get so bogged down by them when most of cooking is all about how it feels and what you want
I can't believe he can still say nutmeg with a straight face...
And now he can't, he knows the meme 😂
the best substitute...nutmeg
I'm sure you made Paul McKenzies day!
We have a friend over here in Hawaii who raises rabbits for meat so we have rabbit as often as we like. I think this recipe well worth a try, as I usually just bake mine with potatoe's and carrots or make rabbit stew.
Thanks for showing us yet another wonderful recipe it looks delicious.
That dude who always commented every video about rabbit or squirre, finally got it
Mace is the outer mantle of nutmeg kernels, so nutmeg is a great substitute. I once jugged a leveret in English brown ale and it was really good, but I lost the recipe. Great viewing as always!
Jack Rabbits are hares. FWI if you live in the western U.S. I have tried them fried like cottontail or barn rabbits but they are like shoe leather. However if you braise them low and slow like a beef or lamb shank they come out surprisingly delicious. Just make sure you season them the way you like and yes.....add a spoonful of lard to the pot. This old timey technique would work well with them.....just cook them till you think they are done then add an hour lol. Thanks Jon.
It's the same for many game animals. Hares, fezzans, venison etc.
WW Suwannee...Love to cook squirrel and rabbit in a slow cooked bacon or sausage gravy.
thanks for the tip, I moved to Nevada this year and plan to try and get a few jackrabbits this year. it'll be interesting since I've never hunted before!
I had always heard that you should slow cook rabbit and hare though like in stew or a recipe like this one though.
Coq au vin; similar idea, only acidic wine is used in that recipe.
What did your family use for a braising liquid? Water? Stock? Some alcohol of some kind (think coq au vin)? Some acid like a little cider vinegar too? Something else?
I could imagine an American rabbit version of coq au vin using some hard cinder and cinder vinegar mixed with some rabbit stock and barely any flour as a fine braising liquid that would thicken to a very thing gravy.
Rabbits and hares are related, but they are different. Both are delicious though, especially with some added fat. They really need that.
Oh that took me back to my childhood. We raised rabbits and ate them on a regular basis. We used cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup and add vegetable and it was more like a stew.
Thanks for what you do and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at Townsends.
Thanks Paul McKenzie and jTownsend for reaffirming my experience cooking rabbit. Low and slow is best for tender meat. Can also be brine to break down the muscle
When ever I come here I wish we had a 'smell a phone'- cause everything always looks so yummy!
Thank you & your buds for being such good teachers & makeing it fun to learn!
I saw this being cooked when I was much younger - the smell was awful, but then I do hate strong gamey smells. The blood of the hare was black and used in the sauce. The lard was threaded with a huge needle through the meat. The hare was in rich red wine ( port I think). I was told it was difficult to get the hare to be acceptable for the table. Some Hare’s are HUGE here - bigger than foxes - so that means a lot of meat !
That might have helped the one rabbit my dad brought home. To put it simply, it smelled like it had been pee’d in. 😬
Having the blood in might have added to the smell you disliked. For the gaminess there are a lot of steps you can take, which Jon's rabbit apparently had done.
First, you have to dress it immediately after death. Get the blood, the organs, and the offal out! You can still save them if you want to use them, some people really like the liver (which is nothing like a chicken liver). Immediately put everything you want to keep on ice.
Second, when ready to cook, after cutting it up soak it in buttermilk overnight. If you've done the first two there's no gaminess at all left for a rabbit at this point.
If you have one that's still gamey (a bad sign, but we never had ones as large as yours) you can use a marinade. Ones with wine or fruit juice are good. Basically anything acidic. The port doesn't really work for that because it's too sweet, but it sounds like they were cooking it in the port rather than marinating, so trying to add flavors rather than remove bad ones.
Even with all that the gaminess can linger in the fat for wild animals, so normally you remove that just before serving, but there's not a lot of it on a hare to start with.
We were raising rabbits for food in town during the 70s and 80s (rabbit is considered pets not livestock so we could do that). Rabbit liver is delicious! Does NOT taste like chicken. :o) For us, slow cooking in a crock pot or in an oven roasting bag worked well. It is a VERY lean meat. We would save the little bit of fat found on each rabbit until we had a largish amount then use it to make rabbit sausage. Yum!
Julie Stevens How would you compare rabbit liver to beef liver? I've only had experience with beef but I'm trying to add more offal to my diet.
I think it's better than beef liver, similar texture way more mild flavor. Unless you like the mineral flavor I soak beef liver in milk 8 hrs prior to cooking, rabbit liver goes directly on the skillet.
I agree with all of that. I like to put dried basil in the flour that I dredge the livers in before frying. Haven't tried nutmeg, though. LOL Also, the fresher you can get the rabbit livers, the better (and for me, that applies to beef/calves livers as well).
Would your family "lard" the rabbits, and when you braised them in the crock pot or roasting bag, what would your family use as a braising liquid?
We did not lard the rabbits. Our favorite "liquid" was BBQ sauce :o) in the oven roasting bag. In the crockpot we just used liquid that we have been saving from cooked chicken, drained vegetables, etc. A pretty eclectic "soup" of things. And lots of fresh veggies which provided their own liquid (carrots, onions, celery, etc.) - the kinds of veggies you would put in a soup or stew. Always seemed to work out well. Just made sure that we cooked the rabbit low and slow until it was falling off the bones.
I was literally screaming "LARD IT!!" until the "I told you so" moment came :D . No need to inject anything. Just add a few slices of bacon on the pieces of rabbit and it will do just fine. Cool recipe, by the way, I have to try it sometime. Also, I dig your channel ,pure and simple :). Did you add just thyme or rosemary also?
Yeah, I also had a bit of a "toldya" moment at the end. :D
What about parsley? Can't forget that
I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
My girlfriend raises rabbits for meat, and I was saying the same thing. Yeah bacon works great.
I bait my rabbit traps with nutmeg
Do you eat your trapped rabbits?
How many times have you caught Jon Townsend?
Honestly?
what an amateur, real pro's use carrots as bait.
Like a box trap with just nutmeg?
I have been watching this show for the past year now and have enjoyed it very much:)
Thank you for sharing all of the old styles of the ways that paved for great culinary!
I just wanted to share my appreciation :)
Larding is easy. I used to have a larding needle (for a big cut of meat) but if you make a slice with a sharp knife, then you can slide a strip of suet or bacon into the meat. One time I had a roast of a very tough old moose, and I larded the hell out of it, put it in a dutch oven with a can of beer, a can of tomato sauce and some onions and carrots. Cooked it 3 hours in the oven and the old tough moose was delicious- kids ate it all up- no leftovers. I highly recommend larding.
A small game recipe. We asked and you delivered! Thanks!
Hey your videos are awesome !
It is 3 hrs past midnight here and i am binge watching Townsends. Love from India and keep it up. 😊
harsh lohani I'm from India and I love the Townsends too!
Started watching from Hamburg Germany... loving them still in the US❤️
Do you have rabbits or hare there?
@@dlighted8861 Yes, rabbit stir-fry dishes can be found in village and regional cuisines of the South Indian states.
+1 from India as well
My family raised rabbits in the 70's.We sold them like everyone else that raised them,they were available in grocery stores at a very reasonable price.This all ended when Australia began importing them,and undercutting the price to the point we couldn't sell our higher quality rabbit for enough to pay for their food,never mind making a profit.Then when all the domestic producers went bust,they raised the price to the level nobody would buy them.Kinda shot themselves in the foot.Anyway,that's why rabbit is so hard to find in the US.Our family ended up with a whole bunch of rabbit we couldn't sell,so we ate them.ALL of them.We ate rabbit nonstop ,in every way you could imagine.It still is difficult for me to eat rabbit to this day,40 some odd years later.luckily it appears that the industry may be coming back,my wife found it offered at our local supermarket.Still expensive,but if it catches on,maybe the price will come down.
That's what happened with my daddy too.
I just love this guy and I can’t even figure out why because I don’t want to cook at all but I love history and this guy
Every good woman cooks
@Duke And so should any competent man who isn’t dependent on someone else to take care of him. Basic self-care skills are something everyone should know. ;)
Maybe you should try to cook some of the recipes? Your husband will love it if you cooked.
@@nessamillikan6247 Spare us your feminist BS. A good woman is one who cooks. That's a quality in women that men are attracted to. No man likes feminist crap. So if you want to act like one, be prepared to spend life alone.
When he said it doesn’t look too beautiful yet, I was waiting for the “but watch this” from Guga lol
God bless my grandparents. Squirrel and rabbit were a mainstay at dinner time. And my grandfather loved rabbit and squirrel brains..
Thanks for your videos. I used to raise rabbits and cook them, and hunt jackrabbits (European hare), and cook those too. I think if the rabbit was a bit dry and tough it may be because similar to chicken breast it is best cooked hot and quick, while the hare is like chicken thighs, which can withstand, or even improve from, longer cooking times or braising.
Both hare and rabbit really need some solid seasoning.
I thought it could use more salt as well
Just like your mom ohhhhhhh. Out of all seriousness though, I agree.
So much better than chicken though
They are both really bland meats, so yeah, seasoning is welcome.
And moisture.
My gosh. I've just discovered your recipe videos. I'm so excited to binge watch them all!! Thank you for the great content.
Happy Happy Thanksgiving and we thank all of you for keeping American History current and going proudly. May God Bless all of you this Holiday Season.
In Britain, during WWII, when meat was rationed, rabbit became popular, because it was not only unrationed, but rabbits require minimal space, eat greens (not grains, which humans need), and breed very quickly. Many people bred them at home.
Thanks for your perseverance Paul! John, this was one of my favorite episodes yet. I had never heard or thought about "baking" something in boiling water. Learned lots of good stuff from this one and the meal in general looks delicious. I was already planning on raising a few rabbits starting next year; once they mature this will be the first recipe I try.
Wabbit season....
Duck season.....
Wabbit season....
Duck season.....
ruclips.net/video/m4UWdlfH86s/видео.html
When you go shopping for the ingredients for recipes on the show (or just any errands you do), do you ever wear your 17th century clothes? Like you're just in the supermarket with a basket full of nutmeg, and you just take people for a whirl by putting on the tricorn? I think it'd be fun just for the heck of it
Jackson Williams he did a video doing just that. He lives in a very small town. No one would be surprised to see him in costume, because he makes and sells them.
LMAO!!! "Basket full of nutmeg"
Connor Oliver It's one of his earliest videos...go to their first videos and if I recall correctly it's one of the first 5
I live close by them. We can be pretty weird here in Indiana. Probably wouldn't get a second glance! 😄
I work at a whole foods/Bulk store. Every Columbus week I see people from the Renaissance Faire come in full custome for squash, lettuce, and chickens.
Jugged Hare, 18th century sous vide, lol? Thank you, this was fun. North America does have hare, snowshoe and jackrabbits, I don't know if they are in the eastern US though. I'm glad you did not mention that the blood was mixed with vinegar then added at the last to thicken the juices, people did utilize every bit of an animal, not a bad idea.
Larding sounds interesting I wish youd make a video about it or other recipes involving it
Larding is still done, mainly with leaner meats. I do something similar with turkey or cornish game hens (chicken is usually fatty enough) but with butter. Just mix finely minced herbs like rosemary, thyme, and sage and mix it with butter (grinding it with a mortar and pestle is optional) and put the butter in between the skin and meat before baking/roasting the whole bird. If you put it on the outside of the animal then the fat just melts off but if you put it inbetween the skin and meat, the skin will hold it in place and allow it to soak into the meat and can help the skin turn golden brown and also help prevent the skin from burning in a long roast.
jugging was an important but forgotten food preservation method. If done correctly the foods can last a surprisingly long time since you're essentially canning the food, only using a layer of fat instead of a lid. He did something like that in his "potted beef" recipe.
@@arthas640 I normally don't like turkey much, but turkey with bacon? Really nice.
I've larded a rabbit with bacon, too, and it was great.
It definitely is a step worth including.
It's a pretty easy process but it's a nightmare on something small and bony like a rabbit.
We were eating rabbit in the early 1960's in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee----fried or rabbit 'n dumplings! YEAH! Groundhog too! Yummy! Cheers!
My Dad was from Cookeville, TN and we grew up eating a lot of squirrel
Jessica Rabbit was "Jugged" as well...
Nailed it
She was just drawn that way.
"He makes me laugh."
At least you didn't reference Lola Bunny from Space Jam, generating a generation of furries.
That'd be only a _hare's breadth_ away from too much!
Larding,from my knowledge,was done by sewing in bits of bacon. Use needle,and thread to pull lard strips through meat,cutting threaded bit off,leaving just lard strip through the meat!
And some may note that one of the causes for larding with hare/rabbit, was to prevent what was known as "Rabbit Starvation". With particularly lean meats, it was easy have lots of protein, but not the fats you needed to keep alive. So you had severely reduced caloric intake, and eventually would die. Larding (and suet which features prominently in pemmican) added vital fats that would help you keep up with gruelingly cold temperatures, both to keep your energy up, and keep enough fat to prevent hypothermia.
Haha, just started watching it and didn’t realize it was a new upload! Gotta know it’s a good video.
Your honesty is always refreshing.
Your videos are absolutely wonderful! Thank you so very much for all that you do!
As a fellow small-town Hoosier, I have a hard time with you having to purchase a farm rabbit. There is no shortage of folks right there in your town who could have provided you the real (and far more tasty) deal. Your trepidation was palpable throughout this whole video and I admit I did chuckle watching you squirm. Love your videos, keep up the great work. Don't take any of the recipe warriors to heart in these comments. Every country grandma has a rabbit recipe that her kids will swear is the best. You'd have fewer complaints about a chili recipe.
For stuff that needs to be picked back out after cooking, like cloves or bay leaves, use a tea ball.
Great recipe ! Save your bacon drippings and filter it through a fine sieve as you pour it into the storage jar. You can use bacon dripping for larding plus adding another layer of flavor. I have seen the onion-clove trick used here in Greece as well. The onion also imparts its flavor as well to the dish.
For larding dryer meats, I have found butter to be second to only bacon or sausage drippings. Salted smoked jowls is very close. As for rabbits, they used to run thick in Oklahoma. Up to the late 1970's Farmers would pay us to shoot them. As a kid, I would pick up the kill and throw them in the follow pick up after the combines harvested a field. Typically, 160 acre field would have half a pickup bed of cottontails or Jack rabbits. The lead truck usually had 3 shooters with 22 pumps. One had the left, one the middle, one the right. During the great depression and WW2, rabbits kept my parents fed. Mom still hates rabbit.
Take care from Oklahoma,
Mike and Vee
There's a channel called Supersizers do the Regency era, speaks of the Jugged Hare, as originally a hunter's recipe, but became popular with the gentry following the enclosures act.
Ah. The proverbial fencing off of the village green. :-(
hey! cool fact!
Love The SuperSizers!
I remember that episode, it's a bit upsetting, she followed the recipes to the letter but on a modern cooker which threw everything off. The jugged hair was awful and the beef was dry amd hard. The yorkshire pud was crispy though.
Gamy: Yeah, they seem not to have had cooks who understood period cooking techniques for most of those “Supersizers” episodes.
Am I the only one thinking "Jugged Hare" sounds like a drunken Bugs Buggy Cartoon? :)
STB 1971 What's up Doc? (hic)
There was a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I think it was titled Hassenpfeffer, after an European dish of the same name,
Larding is done in two ways. The first is when you make an incision in the meat but not all the way through so your meat opens like a book. You put your fat in thin slices and fold the meat back. The other way is taking a long baton of the fat and putting it through using a larding needle, a v shaped knife/needle like device which pushes the fat through the meat.
Fantastic, I live in Malta and there is plenty of rabbits at the butcher, so this is something i will try, but i will be wraping the rabbit in bacon before putting it in the pott, the smokiness will add to the flavor and the fat will marinate in to the rabbit meat.
me: * looks at pet rabbit *
rabbit: * looks nervously back *
The infamous "Rabbit Fever" was caused by eating rabbit without "larding" it. People died from this!
Sorry Lurker1954, ... Here's the definition:Tularemia - also called rabbit fever or deer fly fever - is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. The disease mainly affects mammals, especially rodents, rabbits and hares, although it can also infect birds, sheep, and domestic animals, such as dogs, cats and hamsters.
While Tularemia is sometimes called Rabbit Fever, it is not the only thing. The Original condition was a nutritional disease caused by the bodies inability to fully metabolize protein without fat. It is the reason proper Diet Plans include salad oil or some such in the meal plans. Nutritional Diseases were a major bane before Captain Cook's day. Protecting his crew from another one (Scurvy) was the reason his men love him so much. The British Navy came up with the answer to that one in the humble Lime. Every sailor was issued a quantity of Lime Juice every day. The Answer to Rabbit Fever was rather obvious, some people didn't get it. Those who fried their rabbits in bacon fat never suffered from it. Or they didn't eat lean meat at all.
Everybody loves the Cooke. .
Rabbit is one of my favorite meats- young cottontail rabbits and young domestic (European) rabbits are absolutely divine. Older ones are tougher and need to be braised, the youngsters can be fried like chicken or marinated and grilled. Jackrabbits and snowshoe rabbits are hares, and need slightly different treatment. I shot a jackrabbit once as a kid, and tried to fry it like a cottontail- big big mistake. The meat on a jackrabbit is dark purple like venison or mutton, and very tough, because jackrabbits 'work' (run around) for a living. One old recipe I recall for jugged hare was a hare cooked in a jug of its own blood with plenty of spices and strong port wine- not for the faint of heart, but probably a really impressive meal to show off during special occasions. Also, if you hunt or handle wild rabbits, beware of tularemia (aka rabbit fever). ALWAYS use disposable gloves and thoroughly cook the meat.
I'd give anything to surround myself with a similar colonial-style atmosphere in my home. What a comfortable and enjoyable video. How apropos as I have a rabbit defrosting on my counter for tomorrow's dinner! I would add Extra virgin Olive Oil to this dish. It's not part of the original recipe, but it's how the rabbit would have been cooked in Italy, including garlic, rosemary, and white wine.
I WAS RAISED ON RABBIT AND SQUIRRE. MOM WOULD DREDGE THE RABBIT IN FLOUR AND FRY IT. THEN SHE WOULD MAKE RABBIT GRAVY AND PUT THE FRIED RABBIT IN THE GRAVY AND SIMMER IT FOR QUITE AWHILE. THE RABBIT WOULD SOME OUT TENDER AND DELICIOUS. SHE DID THE SAME FOR SQUIRREL. I WOULD WRAP THE RABBIT IN BACON IN YOUR RECIPE. YUMMY!
cool recipe!
Some reason why you're screaming, dude?
Serai3 - I don't think Grandma Liz's Kisses realizes that by typing in call caps it's the equivalent to shouting.
Serai3 She's also using her grandma's old keyboard. It was made before they invented lowercase.
Mom used to add smoked squirrel to bean soup.
Man, this is high quality entertainment. Love your culture, history and music. Great editing, fantastic channel.
To go with Thanksgiving:
A Scottish dish : Clapshot
1. Lb. Potatoes, peeled
1. Lb. Turnips, peeled
( Add some drippings or butter)
1. Small onion
Salt & ground pepper
Chives or parsley garnish
Biol, drain, & dry potatoes & turnips. Chop the onion & fry until clear in drippings,or butter. Mash the potatoes & turnips together, place in the pan with inion, & heat through. Season well & serve hot with a dollop of butter & a chive or parsley garnish.
( Serves. 4-6) Enjoy!
Larding was sometimes done with a larding knife. Or a narrow bladed knife. Pierce the thicker sections of the meat....and fill the holes with whatever.....anchovies.....bacon...suet...etc.
Or! Wrap the item in the bacon...caul fat...etc.
Great video and I'm going to have to try this.
One hint about Farm Raised Rabbits, they, unlike wild Rabbits have some Fat on them. This Fat is the most disgusting Fat I have ever run into as it doesn't render while cooking. I have found that rinsing the Rabbit under cold water while scrubbing with a brush will remove the Fat.
As for the Larding. I think just placing a small amount of Lard with small pieces of Bacon on top of the Rabbit before adding the Onion and Herbs would work wonders.
Ed
Really? Never had a farmed rabbit and i find the wild ones have fat if they are female
Rabbit tastes to me like pork-like chicken, or maybe chicken-like pork. It has flavors of both of those things in it, as well as textures
I was raised on rabbit , duck, squirrel, deer sausage as well as canned vegetables from the garden and dewberry dumplings from fresh pickes berries.
I love this UTube channel . Its fabulous.
I am glad I found it.
I have two rabbits in the freezer now that I've been shy of cooking. The friends I got them from made a rabbit stew for a gathering and I was not happy with how dry the meat was. I think I will lard mine when I cook it. Thanks for that video. This gave me more information that I needed to get those rabbits out of the freezer and onto my plate.
One for those rare occasion where you wont mind a hare on your food.
I'd love to see a dove recipe, I hear they were delicacy back in the days until they became city pigeons.
I've made jugged hare many times. I always assumed it was more of a stew than a dry dish, but I suppose that's what it evolved into. I use the spices you do except the marjoram, and I also put in juniper berries. I seal the meat, I also put in pork belly, then stew it for 3 hours. The liquid I stew it in is usually a mix of homemade beef and chicken stock, and a small amount of the hare's blood (I hunt the hare myself when there's an abundance locally, you never want to take a wild hare if there aren't many around. When there are lots of them, I will shoot one, drain it's blood straight after I've shot it, and then gut it. I'll also use the pelts). After 3 hours it's a rich, thick stew that is best paired with potatoes as eating it as a stew, even though I put vegetables in, is just a bit hard on your stomach.
Spanish supermarkets like 'Bravo' carry rabbit in the meat section. Very good quality. Bravo also carries goat, lamb, mutton, grouse, and so many other delicious meats.
"I don't have any mace on hand right this second, so I'm going to put in the best substitute, which is..." Oh, never mind, we all know what it is ; )
Mace is the outer husk of the Nutmeg
Jon probably hid the mace on purpose, so that he'd have to sub in the nutmeg.
M U S H R O O M K E T C H U P
Gordon Ramsay has lamb sauce, Mr. Townsend has Nutmeg.
Its addictive.
I'll be honest, I just came for Paul Mackenzies comment!
I really appreciate videos like this. There aren't many of us that like historical food :)
The paste seal is widely used, extremely strong, and not talked about. Clean up is a pain since it is so effective. Talking about milling is a different subject :D
Ohhh Yeah..Definitely bit into more than one clove on mom's holiday ham, memory I could do without ...definitely loving the onion idea!!
Hasenpfeffer next?
ruclips.net/video/m4UWdlfH86s/видео.html
Hasenpfeffer ? Hasenpfeffer ?
i make it every year
By a hare's breadth perhaps we will have good fortune.
Har
If I didn't know this was hasenpfeffer, I'd swear it was carrots.
The 18th century version of a crock pot, interesting.
Possum and raccoon was also jugged, they are delicious when jugged. I never thought of using a pot of water to cook my jugged meal. I imagine this would work with jugged beans. Thank you for bringing back the old cooking methods and recipes.
Rabbit was widely eaten in Australia until they introduced myxomatosis to the feral population over here. They were one of the cheapest meats and so were eaten quite often, particularly by people on lower incomes.
Nowadays they're very expensive and much harder to come by, but we ate rabbit an awful lot when I was a kid. We mainly had it stewed with veggies but we'd often have it baked for Sunday lunch and it lends itself very nicely to currying as well.
Perhaps there's some recipes for preparing venison? It would certainly be interesting.
I'll try this as sous vide! I can "jug" it in a canning jar. There are no recipes listed for rabbit in the sous vide cookbooks I've found, and I DO rely on rabbit as a meat that isn't fed corn (I'm that allergic to corn) and I might add butter (can't use bacon or lard for the same reasons I can't eat chicken, pork or conventional beef) and possibly a smoked salt to give the illusion of bacon.
It happens I have my TummyDay Bunny thawing in the kitchen right now. Was wondering what I'd do with it...
Thanks.
Does a corn allergy really come into play when eating the meat of an animal? I'm not sure, that sounds really strange to me seeing as the rabbit has already converted the corn to muscle. How do you eat any livestock at all? most of them are fed corn at one time in their lives.
Jen Porta grass fed animals are different at a biochemical level. You can google it :) Corn fed livestock also probably has antibiotics and hormones which some people react to. It sounds like oc can't have any conventional livestock. S/he's not alone! Remember it was not very long ago "conventional" anything didn't exist - everything was organic and pasture raised/free range/etc. We evolved as hunter gatherers.
"Jugging" it in a canning jar. I had not thought of that! Thanks for sharing the idea.
I have quart and half gallon size Ball/Mason canning jars that I could try. Then put the jar into the water-bath canning pot to cook the rabbit.
Cool, I have all the equipment from making jam.
You can do a similar cooking process. Its called confit ( cooked in fat). Do everything the same just top off the pot with oil. Cook it nice and slow. The flavor is great and you also have a preserving method. Cuts off air to the meat once its done so it won't spoil
Coat the inside of a whole rabbit with a thick (1/4" or so) layer of lard and stuff with thyme, rosemary and sage with a chopped lemon and a ships biscuit crumbled and evenly distributed. Truss and hang roast near a medium fire with a drip pan with butter and or lard and same herbs for basting. Serve with baked beans and cornbread.
I thought it was duck season?
Gallen Dugall Rabbit season!
It'h RABBIT theathon!
ruclips.net/video/17ocaZb-bGg/видео.html
Pygar2..Elmer Season..
That jug boiling technique is the 18th century precursor of the crock pot, I think.
Yes, quite similar except for the heat source.
If anyone is wondering how larding is done I've seen it on a documentary, either Fannie Farmer's Supper (or something along those lines, she was a cook book author and ran the Boston Cooking School) or maybe something with Ruth Goodman where they did it to some Venison, they just put little strips of fat from other meat through little slits all over the side of venison. Love the show!
Thank you for the new way to cook rabbit. I've used a slow cooker before but never thought about using a double boiler essentially. Can't wait to try this.
Yay rabbit not too much of a way to mess up rabbit its good just about anyway you cook it even on a spit over open fire. More game please squirrels, pheasant just what ever you can come up with.
Looks delicious well done you!
Had rabbit in Williamsburg for Easter once. Loved it.
My family usually had Rabbit at Easter. Seemed appropriate, was served without chocolate sauce, but I'll be you could whip of a mole sauce (did I spell that right?) that would suit a bunny.
Remember enjoying my Gran's jugged hare on the farm in Devon, England back in the. 1950s. The sauce was finished with the blood of the hare added to the cooking liquor at the end, then reduced by half to concentrate the flavour. Accompanied by strong green vegetables, such as turnip tops, and boiled potatoes. Has to be specially ordered from the butcher (if you're lucky!) but best if you can source it from a local shoot.
Pardon me... there is a hare in this dish.
This was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be! Your videos are always interesting, but I thought I'd be somewhat grossed out by this for some reason. I also always thought rabbit meat would be a different color when cooked (not sure why).
Thank you for the interesting, entertaining, and informative video!
Here in the UK I've shot and cooked quite a few Hares over the years. It's a lot larger and gamer than Rabbit and we never ever cook it dry. When we JUG ours we dredge it first in seasoned flour and fry it till it has some colour. Then add it with herbs, onions and carrots to an iron pot and cover it in stout (Guinness) or sometimes Port and some reduced beef stock. We lid the pot then cook it slowly for 4-6 hours. If it's done right the meat literally falls from the bones...
The "rabbits" we have here in Maine are indeed Varying hares. We always just drape bacon over the top of the naturally dry meat. I like to make a pot pie with canned turkey gravy for the liquid. Add carrots, peas, a little onion and potatoes to the meat which was cut up fine and browned with onions. Place a nice crust on top and enjoy!
@townsends, how did they perserve bacon? I read my ancestor was given bacon for his march to one of the Rev. War battles and he sat in court (he was a Justice of Peace) listening to people get their items back, and one was bacon. Is it the same as pork chops?
Bacon in those days would have been dry cured rather than cured in brine (modern method).
If you've watched the salt pork episode from a few years ago now it's a similar process (sort of).
Basically the salt is used as a dessicant to draw moisture out and dry the meat, the dryer you can get the meat, the less microbes are able to penetrate and spoil the meat (they also don't like a high salt environment either).
They also would have stored it in a dry cool place like a cellar.
@robertleitch : If you were traveling to a battlefield, that was..half a days 'march', how would they carry it in the perserving it as well? Thank you :) :). I love the past, so interesting! :) .
love these videos and I have tried to make these recipes :)
Often they smoked it too.
@Rachel Not really sure about packing for transport, it would depend on the situation I suppose.
Maybe packed in barrels if it was a large amount intended for a field kitchen or for distribution, down to maybe as simple as a clean cloth if it was only a single meal/days worth.
And as mentioned it would have been smoked as well for extended preservation over longer periods.
Just once I want Jon to spit out some dish and yell "My god how did they survive eating that?"
Even got the nutmeg added! This should be a definitive "Townsends" episode ;-).
Hare and rabbit are different. We have both in Australia but hares are larger and mate for life and as a result of people shooting them, they don't breed once one "partner" is shot. Rabbits however..... breed like rabbits. I have eaten quite a bit of rabbit and often boil them. HUGE amount of gelatin. If you can manage to get the meat thin and SHALLOW FRY it in a frying pan it will come out like the best fried chicken you've had! You will have to cut it off the bones to stop it from arching up above the pan though.
Do duck please
Hello rabbit daddy
Good ol' Nicole
Every single episode. Every single one.
Hi unique Nicole!
:)
Good ol' Mr Danforth 374
Choke me, Rabbit Daddy
I am going to try some of your recipes. Love your channel and your show.
I love your channel - the mix of historical anthropology with cooking is fantastic, and you're a very pleasant host! Thank you for doing these videos. :)
Hare is much closer in flavor to beef. Using Rabbit, particularly farmed, instead of hare will produce a disappointing result in comparison to using hare. You should be using the hares blood as well......otherwise it isn't a true jugged hare!!! If you can't use blood as the sauce then use port wine and some thickening agent. Your final result looks nothing like jugged hare...it should have a thick dark sauce/gravy.
Edit: my grandmothers recipe( not overly secret) Jointed hare, plus the blood, 4 oz streaky bacon( rind-less), 4 oz chopped smoked ham, salt and pepper, 6 shallots peeled and finely chopped, 2 medium onions coarsely chopped, 1/4 pint dry red wine , 1/4 pint poultry stock( game bird stock is supposed to be best). Juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 sweet orange. Fresh chopped herbs 1/4 teaspoon of ground mace, 4 cloves, 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel. 4 heaped tablespoons of plain flour, mashed butter( with a fork) 1/2 -3/4 pint hares blood. Do everything as per the video( minus the blood). When finished cooking, remove the meat from the jug. Strain any excess fat( from the bacon and ham) off the stock which you then thicken using the hares blood and mashed butter. Note get the blood fresh, and to stop it curdling mix it with a heaped teaspoon of flour. Add the blood to the stock in the jug( after removing the cooked hare portions.) then the mashed butter( not the other way round). Heat the now thickened liquid gently and then pour over the still hot Pieces of hare. As some one else noted in the USA Hare = Jack Rabbit... using normal Rabbits results in a substandard dish. Rabbit is too close to chicken and lacks the depth of flavor necessary for jugged Hare.
Yup every jackrabbit (which is a species of hare native to North America) I've ever killed had dark purple meat, it looked more like venison or mutton than domestic rabbit (or even a wild cottontail). They're also real tough buggers, taste pretty strong and need careful treatment in the kitchen to do them justice. I recall reading that 'true' jugged hare required the use of the hare's blood, never tried it and probably never will, but if I ever shoot another jackrabbit I may just keep it in mind. :)