Rabbit Stiffado Recipe

Ok, this is my version of rabbit stiffado recipe. Truth be told, I like experimenting, so many of these recipes are adaptions of things I’ve made in the past. In fact lets be honest, it’s a bit hard to reinvent the wheel, so I would pretty much think that every recipe going has its root in something else!

So you need a couple of rabbits, I got these from the farm, prepared them into joints and went from there. To my thinking, rabbit stiffado is a bit of Mediterranean sweet and sour type meal. The amount of honey is to personal taste. This one may be a tad sweet for your taste, if so, reduce the honey a bit.

Rabbit Stiffado Gun
The tools of the trade

This is a .22 rimfire rifle. It is a long(ish) barrelled CZ, with a moderator. The scope used is a digital night sight, with an image enhancer. The purpose of the moderator is not to completely get rid of the sound of the bullet (not really possible), but dissipate the sound, so that the quarry doesn’t really know where you are when you pull the trigger. Basically it can be the dead of night and I can still see out to about 150 yards or so. I tend to take shots around 50 to 75 yards mostly to the head. The reason for a head shot is two fold.  Primarily, it  is an instantaneous death to the rabbit (remember these bullets are subsonic and the explosive power and energy they put into the rabbit is less than a supersonic high explosive round, unlike a centre fire round from the other rifles I use on say, deer) secondly, in a rabbit, the damage and potential tainting of the meat from a poorly placed body shot hitting the intestines is higher. In my book, it’s all about a quick efficient shot. No suffering to the animal being culled, no silly long shots with a chance of ricochet, safe back drops to remove the chance of the bullet going somewhere you don’t want it to should you miss etc etc etc. I am no SAS marksman, but I do like to think I am a safe shooter, with both rifle and shotgun and if I’m shooting somewhere I will get asked back again.

Hunting rabbits for Stiffado Recipe
So here we are on the farm before the sun goes down, assessing the ground and backdrops for safe shooting later. Remember once it gets dark, even though I have the night sights, you still can’t see everything, so knowing the lie of the land is essential for safe shooting.
I don’t have a video camera linked into the rifle yet, but in time I will be able to take shots of what I see through the lens.

 

Hunting Rabbits

The end result! Three large rabbits, ready for preparation. Dependent on how this section of the blog is accepted, I will do a video of how to prepare a rabbit, but it is a slightly messy process so let’s stick with the basics first! The recipe which comes next will be interspersed with a few photos, just because I like pictures and you can then tell me what you think. If anyone wants to heckle, again please be my guest, but do so with a sense of relevance backing up your point of view. I eat meat, doing it this way I know exactly where it comes from, the meat hasn’t been factory farmed, fed any rubbish and I do all the processing myself, so the animal isn’t transported goodness knows how many miles on a road train to get to the slaughter house. I personally think that centralised slaughter houses (i.e removing them from the farms themselves) was one of the biggest mistakes we made in this country, not only has animal welfare been reduced, but it has the potential to spread disease, but hey that’s my two pennies worth and if someone can explain a rational reason for doing it, then I am more than willing to listen and be re-educated.

 

 

Skinning Rabbits

The Rabbits. Two are required for this recipe, they need to be skinned and gutted, and then chopped up into sensible portions. I tend to cut them down into the following pieces. Front legs, back legs, the saddle (big bit top left of the chopping board) the skirt or bits underneath that support the intestines and the rib cage and back end (pelvis etc). Note that rabbit is bony. VERY bony! If you want to make your life a little easier then throw away the ribs and and pelvis and just keep the other parts. Personally I throw it all in as I don’t like to see waste, I just spend a good few minutes picking out the bones when I’m eating it!!!

 

 

The Ingredients

  • 2 Rabbits chopped up as above
  • 6tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 bottle of good red wine
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 2 sprigs of rosemary
  • 4 sprigs of fresh oregano
  • 1 pint of water

Mix it all up and leave in the fridge for 24 hours

What you need to add to the Rabbit Stiffado Recipe

Next day add:

  • 1 stick of cinnamon
  • 8 allspice berries
  • 1 pint chicken stock
  • 8 whole garlic cloves
  • 4tbsp tomato pureee
  • 8 pureed gd sized
  • Fresh tomatoes
  • 1kg French long shallots
  • 2 tbsp honey

 

Mixer

 

 

Pop it all together in a nice big oven dish and leave in the oven for 4 hours with the lid off at 125 degrees celsius. Check every hour to make sure the onions don’t burn and stir accordingly.

 

 

Rabit Stiffado Recipe

 

Remove the allspice berries and cinnamon stick.
Add lid and turn heat up to 160 degrees for 3 hours.
Remove the rabbits and shallots and set aside.

 

 

Pots of Rabbit Stiffado Recipe
Put back on hob and boil to reduce the liquid by half. Add another tbsp of honey if it’s a bit bitter.

Add 150grams of frozen peas and boil another 5 minutes.

Pour sauce over rabbit and onions and serve with Which veg you fancy. As you can see I put it in frees able containers. I’m a bog believer in this as at the end of the day. Why cook every day, when doing one big cook once in a while is so much easier!

 

Enjoy! 🙂

P.s. Tip: use the legs and saddle of the rabbit, if you don’t like bones as the ribs can be a pain!

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