Ireland: Rabbit Braised in Guinness, with Bacon Dumplings (March 15, 2009)

"Rabbit was always the great meat for the country people," Biddy White Lennon quotes someone as saying in one of her many articles on the food and eating habits of the Irish in recent centuries. Other native Irish food writers agree. Beef could all too often be too expensive, or entirely unavailable: pork, much loved though it was, was also seasonal. But rabbits were available all year round, reproduced themselves even more enthusiastically than the most energetic pig could, and didn't require special care or any cash outlay to speak of for their food. With all this going for them, there was no way they could avoid being popular as a dinner dish in Ireland.

Rabbit, originally (it's believed) imported by the Norman occupiers of the 1100's, has cyclically gone up and down in popularity, due to economic factors, formerly uncontrollable diseases in the rabbit population, and the general attitudes toward one food or another which in Ireland, as in other countries, come and go. In the cities, in particular, rabbit has occasionally been viewed as the kind of food that only "culchies", the dim bulbs from the deepest countryside, would be caught eating -- or as an unwelcome reminder of periods in past years when times were hard and people ate whatever they could get whether they liked it or not.

But in a countryside well stocked with people who enjoy catching or raising their own dinners without recourse to a supermarket or the butcher, rabbit has never really fallen entirely out of favor. A surprising number of people still raise rabbits, on a small scale, specifically for the table. Others, trying to reduce the depredations of the bunny population on their crops and kitchen gardens, are still quite happy to hunt them when the need arises, and to make sure the meat's never wasted afterwards. In the towns and cities, our butcher tells us that rabbits are staging something of a comeback -- possibly due to the credit crunch and the increasing reluctance of nearly everybody to let a cent more than necessary out of their wallets. In terms of value for money, rabbit has always been economical, with a high ratio of meat to bone, as well as being lean and (when young) very tender and flavorful. (By the way, as regards taste, those who say you can put rabbit into any chicken dish are sort of talking through their hats. Rabbit definitely tastes different from chicken. True, many chicken recipes would work well with it. But tender young rabbit -- as one Sam Gamgee once remarked -- is a delicate meat, worth seeking out for its own virtues without dragging chicken into the discussion.)

This recipe, adapted from one in Biddy White Lennon's Poolbeg Book of Traditional Irish Cooking, is a solid countryside treatment, perfect for either a tender young rabbit (like the one EuroCuisineLady brought home two days ago from a Dublin butcher, and was surprised to discover on getting it home was actually imported from an organic rabbit-farming collective in Italy) or one whose age you're not too sure about (like one a hunting neighbor might have brought you). The braising renders even the meat of an older rabbit meltingly tender. There's nothing fancy in the braising stock, just onions and celery and Guinness from the pub down the road (or from the supermarket if there's no time to bring home a jar of the draft "black stuff"). Slow stovetop braising lends this dish great tenderness and flavor, and the Guinness lays down the basis for a beautifully rich gravy. The dumplings are a variation on the shredded-suet dumpling that's long been a mainstay in these parts, and the smokiness of the bacon goes superbly with the dark rich flavor of the finished stew. If you don't want to do dumplings (or you have trouble finding the shredded suet these require), you can always substitute another dumpling recipe, or else simply make mashed potatoes to sop up that great gravy.

Click on "read more" for the recipe and the method.    

Ingredients:

Acidulated water to marinate the rabbit in

• 1-2 quarts cold water
• 4 tablespoons cider vinegar or wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the rabbit and its braising liquid:

• 1 skinned and cleaned rabbit, jointed (If you're not certain how to joint it yourself, ask your butcher to do it. Or just pretend it's a chicken and cut it more or less into forelegs, hind leg / thigh, breast area, and backbone area. You can separate it into smaller joints if you like.)

• 2 onions
• 2 stalks celery, sliced thin
• or, a slice of celeriac root, chopped into julienne / matchsticks
• 20 fluid ounces / 1 UK pint Guinness, draft or bottled (Draft is much better if you can get it...)
• 4 tablespoons butter

For the seasoned flour to roll the rabbit pieces in:

• 1 cup flour / 6 ounces flour
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage or 1 teaspoon fresh sage, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the dumplings:

• 3/4 cup / 4 ounces self-raising flour

• 4 strips / rashers of streaky bacon, fried or grilled crisp and chopped very small
• 1 1/2 tablespoons shredded beef suet or vegetable suet (UK readers: it's Atora we're talking about)
• 1/2 tablespoon dried chopped parsley or 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons water

First, the rabbit spends an afternoon, or overnight if you have the time, soaking in acidulated water. This draws out any surplus blood and makes the flesh more digestible.

So first: Joint the rabbit. Once jointed, put the water, vinegar and salt in a large bowl, stir until combined, and put the rabbit joints in. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours: overnight is better as the meat also becomes more tender after soaking for that long in the vinegar water. The meat will go pale during this process (it's kind of like "ceviching" the meat).

When ready to cook: Remove the rabbit joints and discard the soaking water. Pat the joints dry and then roll them in the seasoned flour.

Find a large heavy pot in which to braise the rabbit pieces. In a heavy skillet, melt some of the butter and sauté the onions and celery. Remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the same skillet, sauté the rabbit joints until nicely browned.

Put half the onions and celery into the large cooking pot. Lay the rabbit pieces on the vegetables: then scatter the rest of the onions and celery over them. Grind a little pepper over the rabbit pieces.

Turn up the heat in the skillet and add half the Guinness. Scrape and stir well to get the remnants of frying the rabbit pieces into the Guinness: bring quickly to a boil. When finished deglazing, pour over the rabbit pieces in the big pot, and add the rest of the Guinness. Cover.

Bring to a boil: then immediately reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for about an hour or until the rabbit is tender. (If you suspect your rabbit of being an older one, give it another half-hour's cooking time, for a total of an hour and a half.)

About half an hour before the rabbit is scheduled to finish cooking, make the dumplings. Mix the flour and shredded suet with the parsley and chopped bacon. Stir in the water. Add more water if you need to: you want a very thick creamy dough. Using two teaspoons, cut the dough into teaspoon-sized balls and place them on top of some of the rabbit pieces and in the spaces between them. Cover again. Steam the dumplings until cooked, about twenty minutes to half an hour.

Serve with vegetables of your choice.