Rabbit Pie on the menu for tonight!

Decided to try a rabbit hunter's pie for dinner tonight. I'm going to grind meat, brown it, then add a couple of chopped onions, lb of mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots, beans), spices like for meatloaf or stew, liquid (probably a dash of red wine) and put it all in a casserole. Top with mashed potatoes. Bake for 45minutes at 330F and it should be YUMMYY!!

If it works out I'll put it up in the recipe section.

Mmmm, sounds good!

Sounds great! Let us know how it turns out.

I had a request for Corned Beef yesterday, so that put bunny pie on the back burner, so to speak. I might try corning rabbit. should be interesting..it's just a sort of pickling, after all. lightly.

:roll: :roll: :roll:

You cure your own beef? Please share......please, please, pretty please

Two ways to corn a brisket that I know of. (probably a ton more out there)

Basically, you figure out how much water you need to cover your chunk of meat, then boil the water with a LOT of salt to make a brine that will float a fresh egg. (that's about 1lb salt for 2 gallons water). adding anything else to the boiling water that you want as seasoning EXCEPT the peppercorns. like..pickling spices, sugar, bay leaves, etc. Cool water. submerge the brisket in a crock or something with the water covering it. Set in fridge for a week. (VERY similar to sauerbraten...except it's vinegar not brine)

The two types I do are a simple one with just salt, peppercorns, and bayleaf. The second one uses pickling spices, thyme, garlic, brown sugar, juniper berries. The first gives a simple taste, which you can dress up or down. The second one is what most people are used to with Irish Corned beef and cabbage...very spicey, sweet.

After brining, it can be vacuum packed in the fridge, or the freezer or canned. Generally I just thaw a roast or brisket, do the brine thing for 7 days, and then do a boiled dinner If you plan on preserving, you can just pressure can the pieces using the brine solution. no need to let it set in the fridge for days. The pressure cooker will infuse the meat with the goodies.

let's see....recipe:
2 lbs salt
4 gallons water
1 lb brown sugar
6 bay leaves
1/3 cup pickling spices (usually mustard seed, whole cloves, dill, cinnamon, mace, allspice, juniper berries)
10+ crushed peppercorns (freshly crushed)
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
handful of fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)

boil everyting but the pepper. Add pepper after boiling. (boiling does strange things to pepper).

That's about it. cool it down. put in the meat. Weight the meat down so it stays under the water. forget about it for a couple of days. Turn it over. Forget it again. turn it again. After 7 days you're good to go

Thanks Ann,
We loved corned beef, but can hardly ever find any cured beef here except for brisket around St Paddy's day. Brisket is a bit tougher than I want, and cured round is hard to find. Next time they have some decent roasts on sale, I cure one up. Ruben's, here we come

Any time Brisket works out REALLY well with this if you leave it in long enough. AND if it's frozen first...that breaks down some of the connective tissue. Unfortunately, it turns into a bit too mushy then for carving into thin slices. :x

A sauerbraten is another way to go...basically pickling spices and cider vinegar, soak the roast for 3 to 7 days (depending on the amount of SAUER you want) then roast the fellow long and slow. If you use a red wine vinegar instead of Cider, it gives it a totally different gravy...VERY yummy.

I'm thinking that is the way to go with the first older rabbit we try.

Anntann":rx7zop80 said:

Any time Brisket works out REALLY well with this if you leave it in long enough. AND if it's frozen first...that breaks down some of the connective tissue. Unfortunately, it turns into a bit too mushy then for carving into thin slices. :x

A sauerbraten is another way to go...basically pickling spices and cider vinegar, soak the roast for 3 to 7 days (depending on the amount of SAUER you want) then roast the fellow long and slow. If you use a red wine vinegar instead of Cider, it gives it a totally different gravy...VERY yummy.

I'm thinking that is the way to go with the first older rabbit we try.

Click to expand...

I have made sauerbratten, hausenpheffer, and sauernieren, for years, also, pickled pigs-feet and pickled herring. I would still be pickling herring, but one can't find casks of it down here any more. The last I made was when I lived in Michigan, they had plastic :? casks of it in one of the super markets there. My grandfather taught me, when I was still a teen. I was smart enough to see that almost no one else I knew had an inkling on how to make any of it. The recipes I see in many places are atrocious.

The one thing I wish I had written down, was the recipe for the spices he used. By the time I got settled down after college, I had forgotten some of them, and the amount used, so now I am forced to start with pickling spice, pull the cloves out, add a few other things. I was just thinking, all the dishes I named are about the same.... some, one pickles before cooking, some after, and some (herring) one doesn't cook at all.<br /><br />__________ Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:27 pm __________<br /><br />Juniper berries and ginger snaps, who woulda thunk?