I've only eaten rabbit once and it was bathed in garlic butter so I don't really remember it. Besides the "tastes like chicken hehe" stereotype, is there any knock-your-socks-off dish made with rabbit where it's center stage?
Around Lisbon, it's usually stewed with red wine and tomato and spices (coelho à caçador). It can also be fried or grilled but I rarely see it cooked that way.<p>It's the kind of meat that is, generally speaking, better prepared in more rustic versions as you move inland, though -- see e.g. [1], where it's cooked in clay, together with kidneys, heart, liver, and the head.<p>[1]: <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/imK78soKt6ruLNZH6" rel="nofollow">https://maps.app.goo.gl/imK78soKt6ruLNZH6</a>
Rabbit is a pretty important part of traditional Maltese cuisine, rabbit stew is often considered a national dish, fried rabbit is also fairly common.<p>First time I heard of rabbit being considered to taste like chicken, they taste nothing alike.
> First time I heard of rabbit being considered to taste like chicken, they taste nothing alike.<p>They don't. It's just a reference to the standing joke that any meat that is unfamiliar "tastes like chicken" as a generic way of describing meat taste.
Maltese thick rabbit stew (think: ragu) is delicious. And as mentioned in a parallel thread, hare is fairly common in Finland as well.<p>The meat is gamey and indeed <i>very</i> lean, but when you slow cook it to the point where it falls off the bone... yum. Tends to work better with roasted potatoes than mash.
Paella is commonly made with rabbit in Spain.
Yes. In fact, the famous ultra-orthodox traditional paella that Valencians stick to has rabbit. But many other variants do as well. In my family we often eat a simpler version from Murcia with no chicken, but more rabbit, called just "rice with rabbit", and IMHO it's even better (<a href="https://okdiario.com/recetas/arroz-conejo-murcia-2538513" rel="nofollow">https://okdiario.com/recetas/arroz-conejo-murcia-2538513</a>). The best rice you can have without seafood in it :) And I've always liked fishing for the rabbit's liver.<p>At one of my ancestral villages in Galicia, rabbit empanada is also a thing, and tastes amazing. But it's seen less and less often because it's messy to eat (it's cooked with bones so you have to open the empanada, remove the bones and close it again) so people tend to use fillings without that problem now. (You can cook it without the bones, there are also areas where they do that, but in that specific area they shun that variant).
Rabbits are mainly native to the Iberian Peninsula.
The european rabbit (and the domesticated rabbit, which descends from it) is native to the Iberian peninsula. There are ~20 extant species called rabbits all over the world (most though not all leporids outside of <i>Lepus</i>, the true hares).
well they are native almost everywhere but according to legend it was named i-spn-ya (Land of the Rabbits) by the Phoenician although some suggest that SPN could also have meant North instead of rabbits so land of the north.
If I recall, the word 'España' or 'Hispania' refers to an old word for 'hyrax', for which rabbit were mistaken for. Could be apocraphyl but it's a nice idea.
Within Europe, you mean? A quick Google suggest there were native rabbits also in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
Lapin aux pruneaux is a wonderful dish. Serve with salad and mashed potato or french fries<p><a href="https://bordeauxkitchen.com/rabbit-with-prunes-lapin-aux-pruneaux/" rel="nofollow">https://bordeauxkitchen.com/rabbit-with-prunes-lapin-aux-pru...</a>
You can coat the rabbit meat with Dijon mustard and cook it to make "Lapin à la moutarde" too!<p>It's not a knock-your-socks-off dish, I don't think the meat has enough qualities for such a dish (not enough of a distinct taste or texture or quantity), but it's always nice to have!
It's quite common in Spain, in my family we eat that ~6 times a year. Honestly delicious, but I understand why people won't eat it.
Brunswick stew is hearty[0], usually rabbit or squirrel traditionally, but these days with chicken. The Maltese variety as mentioned elsewhere is called Stuffat Tal Fenek as is very nice, having tried it in Malta.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_stew" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_stew</a>
Hare is pretty common game here in Finland and I think I must have eaten that fairly regularly when I was little but I have absolutely no recollection what it actually tasted like.<p>Only recipe I've seen was indeed a stew where the ingredients were almost "one rabbit, unholy amounts of garlic".
My granny in Hungary always cooked it
like your regular chicken soup (consomme) but of course replacing
the chicken with rabbit<p>Like
this <a href="https://streetkitchen.hu/receptek/nyulhusleves" rel="nofollow">https://streetkitchen.hu/receptek/nyulhusleves</a>
> is there any knock-your-socks-off dish<p>you need an example of what you consider such a dish.<p>Rabbits are pretty decent, as a kid we used to have quite a few of them at the village (along with all other kind of animals, incl. lambs, pigs, and goats). Either way it's rather easy to tell the meat apart and most meat(s) can be prepared to be delicious.
It used to be more common in the U.K. but it’s pretty rare now. Stews and braising were the traditional way to cook it as older ones are kind of tough.
Hmm. It's made me think about Lièvre à la Royale (Hare à la Royale), but of course Hares are not rabbits (they taste gamier).<p>The guys from Fallow made a video on YouTube about attempting to make a really good one.<p>Apparently Lapin à la Moutarde is the classic rabbit dish.
I like Sichuan's Zigong 冷吃兔 (cold-eaten rabbit)! Fried rabbit, dried chillies and numbing Sichuan pepper. Unforgettable.
Confit or cassoulet.
In oven with potatoes!
rabbit stew