Calling back to an earlier period of American culinary history
Lying on orange, shag carpet, eating Baron von Redberry cereal and watching 1960’s Bugs Bunny cartoons is not the place you would expect to have a 40-year culinary mystery planted in your tiny, cartoon-watching head.
But the “Where’s my hasenpfeffer?” line from the classic Bugs Bunny short “Shishkabugs” not only became a viral, proto-meme that my friends and I would bellow at confused authority figures, it also burned a pair of questions into my young, biscuit- and gravy-fed brain, “What is hasenpfeffer and do people really eat cute little bunny rabbits?”
The first question is easy to answer: hasenpfeffer is a real thing that real people still eat. It’s an old-school traditional German stew made by marinating a hare (hase in German) in wine and vinegar, then braising it with onions and spices before adding a bit of sour cream at the end. It’s rich, aromatic, and perfect for cold, merciless Bavarian winters where cuteness has no intrinsic value and Watership Down is a fun kids’ movie.
The answer to the second question is where people begin to clutch their Velveteen Rabbit plushies and silently plea to El-ahrairah for mercy. Yes, people eat rabbits—about 200 million tons a year worldwide. These aren’t hammer wielding, Glenn Close bunny-in-a-pot gangs of psychopaths. Meat rabbits (a distinction of purpose, not biology) are consumed by families everywhere from France to China to the Caribbean and the Middle East.
But here in the U.S., rabbit consumption dropped dramatically after the end of World War II when backyard bunnies that had been fattened up on Victory Garden scraps to eventually hit the dinner table (while other meats had been dutifully shipped off to the troops) were supplanted by beef, pork, and chicken as the American meats of choice.
Rabbit, though, is a very lean, clean, healthy, and delicious source of food that deserves to be a part of the American diet. Compared to beef, pork, chicken, even lamb and turkey, rabbit has the lowest percentage of fat, highest percentage of protein, and the fewest calories per pound. These Marlon Bundoesque alfalfa-munchers are foragers, so they don’t rely on energy-intensive grains for food, and they reproduce like…um…rabbits. One rabbit can produce six pounds of meat on the same amount of feed and water it takes for a cow to produce a single pound.
The taste is often compared to chicken, but it’s much leaner, with a mild and versatile flavor that lends itself perfectly to braised dishes such as my take on a Spring Rabbit Stew.
Happy Easter!
Spring Rabbit Stew
Ingredients
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 rabbit legs
• Salt and black pepper
• 3 ounces pancetta, diced
• 1 leek, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup white wine
• 2½ cups chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• ½ lb shiitake mushrooms, chopped
• 10 fingerling potatoes, halved
• 1 cup green peas (fresh or frozen)
• ½ cup crème fraîche
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
Preparation
1. Season rabbit with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and brown rabbit on all sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Add pancetta to the pan, sauté until crisp, and set aside on paper towels to drain.
3. Lower heat to medium and sauté the leek and garlic until soft. Add carrot and celery and sauté about 3 more minutes. Sprinkle flour over vegetables, stir to coat, and continue to cook until flour turns golden (about 3-5 minutes).
4. Return pan to medium-high heat, stir in wine and scrape up any browned bits. Cook for 2 minutes then stir in chicken stock, bay leaf, and thyme. When mixture simmers, lower heat to medium-low and return rabbit to pan.
5. Add fingerling potatoes and mushrooms, cook for 15 minutes, then add fresh peas (see pro tip below if using frozen). Cover and continue cooking until rabbit is tender—about 30 more minutes.
6. Remove rabbit, bay leaf and thyme stems from pan. Turn heat to high and reduce until sauce is thickened. Remove from heat, stir in crème fraîche and mustard, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Remove the rabbit meat from the bone and return to the sauce. Top with chopped tarragon and serve with a baguette.
Pro tip: If using frozen peas, don’t add them until you put the rabbit back to the pan in the last step.
Mike McJunkin is a native Chattanoogan who has traveled abroad extensively, trained chefs, and owned and operated restaurants. Join him on Facebook at facebook.com/SushiAndBiscuits