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Roast or Baked Rabbit

Roast baked rabbit, stuffed with sausage-meat and forcemeat, wrapped in buttered paper, cooked over fire or in oven, served with brown gravy and red-currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Roast or Baked Rabbit

4 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Empty, skin, and thoroughly wash the rabbit; wipe it dry.

  2. Line the inside with sausage-meat and forcemeat made by recipe No. 417, to which has been added minced liver.

  3. Sew the stuffing inside, skewer back the head between the shoulders, cut off the fore-joints of the shoulders and legs, bring them close to the body, and secure them by means of a skewer.

  4. Wrap the rabbit in buttered paper.

Roast and serve

  1. Put it down to a bright clear fire; keep it well basted.

  2. A few minutes before it is done, remove the paper, flour and froth it, and let it acquire a nice brown colour.

  3. Take out the skewers, and serve with brown gravy and red-currant jelly.

  4. To bake the rabbit, proceed in the same manner as above; in a good oven, it will take about the same time as roasting.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole and kept moist by basting.
Sausage-meat and forcemeat (in the method)
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and richness to the lean rabbit meat as it cooks.
Minced liver (in the method)
Adds richness and a deeper, more savoury flavour to the stuffing.
Butter (in the method)
Enriches the wrapping paper so the rabbit stays moist and tender while roasting.
Flour (in the method)
Dusted on near the end to help form a golden-brown crust.

The step that matters

Removing the paper and frothing near the end. Paper must come off only a few minutes before the rabbit is done. Flour and basting then froth and brown the surface; leaving the paper on too long prevents browning, while removing it too early dries the lean meat.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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