Do I need to soak the rabbit in water before cooking?

Good afternoon. Today, as you may have guessed, we will talk about a nutritious meat dish. My parents raised rabbits, there are a lot of nuances and subtleties with them, but that’s not about that now. Mom often baked and cooked meat in the oven and in a frying pan.

I really want to share all the intricacies of preparing this dietary product. I’ll say right away that not everyone likes it, because they don’t know how to cook properly. But in fact, meat is very healthy.

Rabbit meat - refers to dietary meat and white varieties. Since it contains little fat and a lot of protein, it is used for various gastrointestinal diseases. Contains iron, manganese, cobalt, fluorine, potassium, B vitamins.

It normalizes metabolism and fats in the body, is suitable for pregnant women, children, adolescents and the elderly, and is also included in dietary nutrition.

If you buy a carcass at the market, look at the paw; sellers usually do not remove the skin from a piece of the paw so that people are convinced that it is not a cat.

Pay attention to the appearance and smell, this is very important. If you don’t like something, it’s better not to buy it, but in general, it’s better to buy from trusted sellers.

Rabbit baked in a sleeve in the oven

A very interesting recipe, the marinade contains kiwi, which helps make the meat much more tender. The result is gorgeous meat that can be served with pickles, tomatoes, porridge or potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg. a rabbit
• 1 kiwi
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• salt and black pepper

You can bake the whole carcass, pieces, or cut into several parts.

Cut the carcass into pieces or in half, soak in water, and dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. We peel the garlic, cut the cloves into several pieces, make cuts in the meat and insert the garlic into them.

Peel and grate the kiwi. So, rub the meat with salt and pepper and distribute the kiwi over the entire surface of the carcass.

Place everything in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, be sure to cover it or place it in a bag so that it does not become saturated with foreign odors and does not become airy.

Then we remove the kiwi with a napkin; there is no need to rinse it, just remove it. And we place it in a baking sleeve, and tie the sleeve itself on both sides.

Bake for 1-2 hours, temperature 180 degrees, if you do not open the package, you get the most luxurious dietary meat. If you want it to be golden brown, you can open the bag slightly by cutting it, then the meat will brown.

Delicious hot, soaked in garlic and the taste and aroma are excellent. You can serve it with semi-sweet red wine and have a festive dinner.

How long does soaking last?

It takes varying amounts of time to soak the rabbit before further cooking. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to answer this question unambiguously. The recommended duration of the procedure will depend on various factors. First of all, it is the freshness and quality of the meat. The younger and fresher the carcass, the less time it will need to be kept in marinades. But the request of the cook himself is also important - the desired degree of soaking of the carcass. There are dishes for which it is undesirable to interrupt the natural flavor of meat. And, for example, for rabbit meat kebab it is worth making a product with a spicy, bright taste.

The table clearly shows the optimal soaking time:

FAQ

Soaking a rabbit in vinegar and then cooking it is not at all difficult. However, so that you do not have any misunderstandings during the process, it is better to familiarize yourself with the questions that arise most often regarding cooking.

What spices should not be added to rabbit marinade?

You can add a variety of spices to the rabbit marinade. However, some are still worth giving up. These include the following:

• barberry;
• vanilla;
• mint;
• poppy;
• cinnamon;
• sage.

The taste of the dish depends on the spices you choose.

What seasonings go well with marinated rabbit?

The following seasonings go well with rabbit meat:

• cloves, ginger, mustard;
• different types of pepper (ground, peas);
• rosemary, nutmeg, coriander;
• bay leaf, thyme and garlic.

Vinegar-based okroshka with mayonnaise is also good, especially when you need to dilute a dry meal.

What to do if you added a lot of vinegar to the marinade

When preparing rabbit meat, you need to be careful not to overdo it with vinegar. However, if you have added too much acid to the marinade, the situation can be easily corrected. To do this, just increase the amount of other ingredients. For example, water.

Useful properties of rabbit meat

Of course, other types of meat are also healthy. But they do not contain even half of the valuable substances that are in rabbit meat. Rabbit meat is incredibly healthy. Thus, its energy value is 183 kcal. And this is 2 times less than the calorie content of pork and 1.5 less than that of beef. At the same time, it contains 21 g of protein and 11 g of fat.

• vitamins of groups B, C, A and E;
• mineral compounds (lots of zinc, fluorine, cobalt);
• 19 amino acids, including lysine, tryptophan, methionine, and other valuable substances.

Rabbit meat contains a low amount of cholesterol and a lot of lecithin. Thanks to this, it is useful for pathologies of the cardiovascular system and atherosclerosis. In addition, this product will help cope with anemia, diseases of the skeletal system and vitamin deficiency.

how can you eat such a cutie?

Source

Cooking time

Before buying a carcass, you should definitely take into account that cooking a rabbit is not a quick procedure. The final calculation of the time frame should be made only after you have decided on the cooking method. So, it’s easy to fry small pieces until crispy in half an hour. You can stew a rabbit in an hour. The same amount will be needed for roasting meat.

Most of the time is spent by housewives on the process of preparing the main ingredient. The rabbit must be soaked after you wash and cut it. It usually takes at least 3 hours to soak. If the carcass weighs more than three kg, it must be soaked for at least 5 hours. Soaking makes the meat soft and removes the characteristic smell and taste of game.

Helpful tip: the rabbit will taste better if you marinate it after soaking.

Delicious rabbit in the oven with potatoes

The meat turns out tender and juicy, and the potatoes are magnesium and aromatic, an excellent recipe for holidays and everyday life. Suitable for a family dinner, for get-togethers with friends, or just to please your family and feed them a hearty dinner.

Ingredients:

• rabbit 1 kg
• onion 1 piece
• 0.5 kg potatoes
• salt, pepper, meat seasonings
• 5 tbsp. l. mayonnaise
• 4 tbsp. l. vegetable oil

First, let's cut the meat into pieces, be sure to wash it, then soak it, or do without this procedure. I put the dried pieces (I remove the moisture with a paper towel) into a bowl.

I add salt, pepper, Italian herbs, you can use any seasonings. I peel and cut the onion into half rings and mayonnaise. And mix everything well.

I cover it with film and put it in the refrigerator to marinate for 2 hours, this is if I’m in a hurry, but if I’m not in a hurry, you can leave it for 6-8 hours, or overnight.

After the time has passed, I peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. I salt, pepper, and add a little sweet paprika, but you can do without it.

I covered the bottom and sides of the pan with foil, put pieces of chicken and onions on the bottom, and potatoes on top.

Cover everything with foil on top and place in the oven for 1 hour, temperature 180 degrees. This way it will be tender and soft; mayonnaise serves as a good softener. We have cooked meat in mayonnaise many times, I want to say that it melts in your mouth, very tender and juicy.

Instead of a store-bought product, you can take a homemade one that you prepared yourself, or replace it with sour cream and cook it in sour cream. Alternatively, mix sour cream and mayonnaise in equal proportions.

After 1 hour, remove the foil and put it in the oven for another half hour. And in total, it turns out that the meat takes 1.5 hours to cook. Oven dishes are much healthier than those cooked in a frying pan. We often bake chicken and pork, it turns out great.

This is what the finished dish looks like, all that remains is to move it into a beautiful bowl and serve it to the table. You can sprinkle with fresh and aromatic herbs.

We check the readiness of the meat with a knife or fork, if you pierce it, and there is clear juice inside, everything is ready, if you see red juice, let it sit in the oven. But if the juice does not stand out, then it is overdried.

Pay attention to the age of the hare, I have a young rabbit, and it took 1.5 hours to cook; if it’s old, then perhaps it will be tougher, and it will take more time to cook it.

A little about spices

The rabbit must be cooked with carefully selected spices that will help bring out the flavor of the meat. But compared to other types of meat, when cooking rabbit you need to know exactly what seasonings to use so as not to overshadow the main flavor notes.

During cooking or at the marinating stage, the main ingredient should “make friends” with pepper, bay leaf, garlic and onion. If you like more subtle notes, add a pinch of oregano, basil, thyme or coriander to the marinade. Many gourmets highly value rabbit meat marinated in spicy cinnamon, cloves or lemon.

How to deliciously and simply cook rabbit in pieces in a frying pan

It's quick, simple and very tasty, like this without an oven, stewing or baking, you can fry a hare in pieces in a frying pan. For me, the meat is cooked in 40 minutes under a lid over low heat.

Not entirely, you can fry some of the pieces, for example 6-8, for dinner, and freeze the rest to cook another time.

Ingredients:

• Rabbit carcass (1-2 kg)
• salt
• 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 30 grams butter

Divide the carcass into pieces and cut with a sharp knife. In this recipe I do not soak, I just rinse twice under running cold water.

Drain the water, salt the pieces, pepper and there are no spices here, I don’t put them on purpose to feel the taste of the rabbit and not the spices.

Fry in a dry, well-heated frying pan, laying everything out not in a crowd, but in one layer. Fry on one side, then on the other. Turn over the fried pieces.

When the pieces are fried on both sides, pour in vegetable oil and add a piece of butter. The meat will release juice, now we need to turn down the heat, cover with a lid and fry for 35-40 minutes, periodically opening the lid and turning the pieces over.

Butter will give the meat a creamy, delicate taste; it is a meat option without unnecessary spices and seasonings.

Pour the juice over the pieces so that it is not dry, and serve with any side dish. So there are a lot of recipes, you can try any. I traditionally cook and serve for the New Year holidays, and we already have guests waiting.

Preparing a rabbit carcass

Before cooking, you need to soak the rabbit properly and for a sufficient amount of time. Another important point is preparing the carcass for the process. The ideal option is to buy a freshly slaughtered rabbit directly from the farm. Another suitable option is fresh meat from the market. If it is not available to the cook, you can take a chilled carcass. But frozen rabbit meat is a bad option. Even prolonged soaking will not help make the meat soft and tender. Low temperatures destroy the muscle structure of the carcass and generally negatively affect all the main qualities of the product.

Before cutting a rabbit, you should carefully inspect the carcass. Its color should be pink without bruising, blue or other dark spots. Not a dry, but a slippery and sticky surface of meat may indicate that the product has spoiled or is close to it. An unpleasant odor also indicates that the product is not fresh.

If the rabbit carcass is purchased whole, it must be cut before soaking. When you can’t find fresh or chilled rabbit meat, you can use frozen meat. But first it will need to be completely defrosted. To speed up the process, place the carcass in a bowl of cold water and vinegar. Of the latter, take 2.5-3 tbsp. l. per three-liter jar of liquid.

To cut an already defrosted meat carcass, you need:

If desired, you can only cut and clean the carcass without cutting it into pieces.