Has anyone made rabbit stew?

[MarchionessVonSausage]

I would like to make this. I'm in Australia- you'd think finding rabbit meat would be in every supermarket, but it isn't. I live rural & luckily there are 2 good local butchers who might be able to source it, I hope.

My Dad used to make it back in the early 1980's. It had loads of onions, carrots, bacon and I think tins of tomatoes? Likely white wine to deglaze. I want to make it without the bacon & wine.

If anyone has a recipe to share I'd really appreciate it! 🐰

I haven't cooked rabbit for years. I have an old recipe that is similar to the one that the Hairy Bikers have on the BBC Food website and the Rick Stein rabbit with dijon is nice too: both came up in my search here -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/search?q=Rabbit+

There's a few more here -https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search?q=rabbit

Ps I always have to order my rabbit from our butcher - I can't walk in and say "I'll have that one".

I have once, many years ago. Pretty much as you said, but without the tomato.

I’ve never used a recipe for stews, but have made rabbit stew a few times. You need a lot of rabbit. It’s bony and doesn’t have much meat. It’s quite tender (depending on its provenance, I believe) so doesn’t need a long cooking time.

Last time I had rabbit was when late DH used to go shooting - over 30 years ago.
I used to coat in flour, sear it in butter & olive oil, add whole shallots, then add chicken stock - I also added white wine. When it was nearly done, I added double cream & mustard - classically Dijon.

Yes, afterwards DH said the chicken was nice.

I haven't bothered again as he had a point, it was like a very small extra bony chicken.

Yes, I frequently make rabbit stew and have no trouble sourcing them, since I shoot my own! As far as recipes go, I do try to vary them and frequently add chopped celery, shallots rather than onions, peas, sweetcorn, carrots, chunks of potato, vegetable stock, red wine (or dark ale like Guinness), red peppers and, if I want to 'spice it up' chillis and/or turmeric and paprika. Dumplings are a lovely addition and, served with mash potato and steamed vegetables, especially cabbage, is a dish fit for royal!

I used to have it as a child.
I would treat like chicken, it doesn't need long slow cooking.
It's really, really full of tiny bones and I wouldn't bother unless you had a free supply.

I read recently that we used to eat quite a lot of rabbit in this country up until the second world war.

Then we ate it even more because it wasn't rationed, and by the time the war ended everyone was sick of it and it fell out of favour.

Rabbit is one of my favourite things. I don’t really like rabbit stew though as it often lacks flavour.
The best is peices, deep fried or roasted in curried breadcrumbs.

Thanks for your thoughts all!

I think I'm remembering it with a healthy dose of nostalgia. I forgot about all the little bones. Still might give it a go. I bet I'll be horrified at the cost of ordering it though.

Just look on Google!
Rage bait post!

Rage? Over stew?

I really wanted to know if people actually make the stuff. Calm thyself!

We used to add chicken or pheasant because of the lack of meat and make it into a pie.

That sounds delicious! Though I'd have to source the pheasant too. I've never seen that for sale in OZ 😃

Goat meat?

I had rabbit in cider stew with dumplings at Monsal Head about 20 years ago. So good I still remember it. Plenty of recipes online, pretty straightforward.

We do it in a mustard, cream and white wine sauce. Either with mash or tagliatelle. Our butcher regularly has it in amd I just bought half a rabbit for the freezer yesterday.