Ate my first kill tonight!!!

[PoorRichRichard]

Little Thumper and one of his slightly larger friends were delicious! I made a simple cream based pasta out of them. This is a follow up to my "First Successful Hunt" post from last week.

You can view that post here if ya like:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=458336

For those who are interested, here's how I prepared them:

After skinning, gutting and cleaning the Cottontails, soak them in some salt water overnight in the fridge.

After the soak, boil rabbits for 2-3 hours (longer for larger rabbits- my guys were small, so 2 hours was fine). The meat will basically be falling off the bone.

Boil up some fettucini or linguini, drain and set aside. This can be done simultaneously while preparing the sauce.

Separate meat from bone.

Bring saucepan to a medium heat and brown a spoon full of crushed garlic with some olive oil and add pepper to taste. No salt! I'll tell you why at the end of post.

Add rabbit and brown a bit more.

Shoot with a splash of wine- white or red... hell, beer will do fine as well.

Add some heavy whipping cream. Mix it up. Should start to bubble up fairly fast.

Add a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese- you can find the fresh pre-grated stuff at your local supermarket, or use the canned crap>>> your sauce will come out better with the fresh stuff.

Push to one side of the saucepan and add add pasta, toss and scoop into bowl or onto a plate.

As a side, I like to serve with fresh grown tomatoes from my yard cut into slices with salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and bit of red wine vinegar.

Enjoy with a glass of wine (or bottle in my case...) or a frosty glass of your favorite beer!

As I stated before, do not add salt to the pasta until after you have tasted it! Two reasons why: First, the rabbit was soak in saltwater from the overnight soaking, and will retain some of the salt flavoring in the meat. Second, parmesan cheese (both fresh grated and canned) has a considerable amount of salt in it.

You can always add more salt to the dish, but you can never take any out!

Also, if you have extra Cottontail meat that you don't use in the pasta, lightly cover it with olive oil, cover and refrigerate. The cooked meat should hold for 10 to 12 days in the fridge.

This is just a simple base recipe. Feel free to add/experiment! Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[JACK308]

so many years ago my landlord gave me some deer meat he said put it in milk overnight I never knew that. wilg game TASTE much better when its your kill.

[40caljustice]

Congratulations. Sounded like it was good.

Maybe you should post this in the recipes sticky section.

[Wag]

Outstanding!

--Wag--

[FrontSight]

AWESOME, please post it in the recipies section

[hogdogs]

If you run out of ways to eat Bugs Bunny or just want a different recipe...

Rabbit Salad Samich...
Take some boiled and deboned rabbit meat and plop in the food processor and give it a whirl or 3...

When chopped/shredded to a stringy consistency, put in a mixing bowl.

Add what ever you want but I like celery, onion, salt and pepper like you are making chicken salad or tuna salad.

Now add the mayo to desired stiffness of mixture.
Slop on bread and chomp down...

Now blow away the first person who asks what yer eating with what ever snarky statements you can think of!

I will cross post this to the recipe section too...

Brent

[rickyrick]

Darnit!! Now I am Hungry......

How is rabbit soaked in Buttermilk?

[mete]

Acids such as vinegar, buttermilk etc break down tissue so they tenderize meat.

[PoorRichRichard]

hogdogs. That sounds rad! Thank you for the idea. I know all kinds of people I could freak out by munchin' on a rabbit samich in their general vicinity! I will also post in recipes section.

Just an afterthought: For those who dig on the seafood, ya might want to throw some baby clams up in the mix.

[mrbro]

Fettuccine Alfredo con Coniglio! Excellent!

[PoorRichRichard]

...as per requests