Wild rabbit

Lapin de garenne

What it is

The Romans kept this species in walled enclosures they called leporaria, the ancestor of the medieval warren and, eventually, of every hutch rabbit alive. Shot wild it weighs half what its domestic descendants do and carries almost no fat, so the recipe written for one will ruin the other.

In the kitchen

Roast only the saddle, eight minutes at 220 °C, barded with fatback because the animal supplies none of its own. The legs and forequarter want two hours in white wine — a different dish, not a slower version of the same one.

Goes with

Thyme Mustard White wine vinegar Fatback (green back fat) Prune Savory Shallot Bay leaf

Same species

Rabbit

In season alongside

Salt marsh lamb Woodcock Snipe Beefsteak fungus Hind Bleu de Termignon

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