Autumn

Autumn

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Welsh Rabbit

My monthly copy of Shooting Times arrived today. I slipped it from the mailbox, and as I walked the drive back to the house, I absently flipped to the last page to Bart Skelton's column. Bart, for those of you not a fully paid member of the gun culture, is the son of Skeeter.

Anyway, the theme of Bart's article is his recipe for Welsh rabbit. I haven't eaten Welsh rabbit since Moses was a child. I made notes.

The authors recipe is different in that he uses green chiles and wild mushrooms. I'd substitute any mushroom within reach because I'm not sure about you but wild mushrooms are kinda hard to find in my neck of the woods.

Take a walk in the fresh snow tomorrow and find those rabbit tracks and knock a few in the head with your favorite small game rifle and bring 'em home and whip out a fine dinner. This recipe should work well with quail, too. I'll hunt the wild aisles of the Publix supermarket.

For the adventurous here's Mr. Skelton's Welsh Rabbit.

1-2 Cottontails, I'd recommend you first skin them.
Or, 4-6 Quail, breasts and legs.

2 cups of flour.
Oil.
Green chiles, peeled and chopped.
1onion.
Various wild (or domestic) mushrooms.
Red wine.
Water.
Salt, pepper.

Dredge the cottontails and/or quail in flour and drop in hot oil. Brown them on both sides but do not cook all the way through. Place the rabbit/quail and the drippings in a covered casserole dish, preferably stone. Add chiles, mushrooms, onion, wine, and water. Season to taste. Place in oven at 275 degrees and let simmer until the meat falls apart, about an hour and a half to two hours. Serve with with fresh bread.

Enjoy.

Stephen


21 comments:

  1. I couldn't catch a rabbit if I tried, forget the trap, I would catch myself

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    1. Think rifle, small shotgun....'choot em, Rob, 'choot em.

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  2. Oh, they are around in range at the house. They are good, but I let the ones here go as they eat the clover in the yard. I rely on a friend to bring me such. I will try the recipe! Thanks.

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  3. We love rabbit! Have never skinned one but could if need be!

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    1. Deb, make a small slit middle of the back. Insert fingers with one facing forward and the other toward the boogers tail. Pull, hard. With a sharp clever or large bladed knife, remove the head and feet. Field dress. Soak in cold salty water for at least twelve hours. Then carefully placed processed game in waterproof bags and deliver to my shop. Thank you.

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  4. The rabbits around here really cannot be eaten until a good hard frost hits or so say all the old timers. I know they play hell with my garden every year so I am all for more rabbit recipes.

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    1. First catch the rabbit....then check their necks for bulges which signifies parasite infestation...locally called 'wolves,' a very aggressive parasitic worm. If clean, release the rabbit and allow it run at least fifty yards before you take a shot. Field dress, chill, pack on ice in cooler and ship to my address provided upon request. Old timers up there wouldn't know the difference between peanut butter and beaver chips. (Insert silly smiley face here.)

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  5. Mmmmmm,, rabbits some good eating. I miss Skeeter and Dobe, Jug and Joe. I have the three "books" in the first picture and the one by Sally Jim Skelton.
    To me, the only gun 'riter around today that comes near Skeeter is John Taffin, although you can see his father's influence in Bart's stories. I have and enjoyed his book also.

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    1. So true, so true. John Taffin is a bit long in the tooth too, but I agree, he's a fine writer. Thanks, my friend.

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  6. Replies
    1. So many fine outdoor and sporting arms writers have passed by the wayside I sometimes feel we have nothing left but scribblers geared towards technical aspects of computers and that most intellectual sport of all, football.

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  7. Actually those "wolves" are the larvae of the bot fly. It freaked me out the first time I saw them on a squirrel in Lutz, Fl. After I shot the squirrel & it started to cool off, they came out of the skin. Really Really gross. However, they don't seem to do permanate harm to the animal, and they do't harm the meat. That said, I wouldn't eat anything that has them after seeing that. It was not unlike a horror movie. Read up on them. I took photos, that are hard to look at even now.
    I'll use the recipe for quail. :-)

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    1. Those dadgum bot flies....thanks, Muddy. When I was a kid I 'harvested' a rabbit (can't say, kill. It makes the liberal panties wet.) and that little sucker had a 'wolf' in his neck the size of my thumb. The poor cottontail was so skinny I left it for the buzzards.

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  8. dear sweet one - the recipe sounds delicious! i haven't had a proper rabbit stew in over 25 years!!! we see them in our yard eating our clover but only a few of them and they are so tiny not to be worth the bother. but oh...rabbit stew....oh yummeh! thanks for sharing the recipe! and if people start sending you a glut of rabbit, you have our address! send them this way - bahahahahha!

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. kymber, when you find 'small' rabbits it requires you to take more, instead of two, shoot four in order to fill the surface area of the pot. My goodness, must I explain everything.....

      (smiley face inserted here)

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  9. I've never had rabbit. Does it taste like chicken?!

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    1. You poor little girl you.....we need to fix this. Yes, sweet one, cottontail rabbit has the texture and flavor of your grandmother's Sunday afternoon fried chicken. Its flesh is pink, juicy, succulent. When paired with a young white wine, perfect. After your first meal of Southern Cottontail Rabbit, organically free-ranged (of course) you'll want to rush home to mother and kiss her cheeks and then explain the realities of life - that if she ever serves you another sorry-assed meal like that of the evening before....well, you'll shear her head and stamp it with a ball-peen hammer. Thank you, my sweet friend.

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  10. Now YOU have done it. I need to buy a Shooting Times subscription and read Bart, as I did his dad. I didn't know Skeeter, but an AP pal in the Denver bureau had been a shooting buddy of his down in Texas.

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    1. Your friend, Jim, was a lucky fella. I'd like to spend a day with Bart. He's been in law enforcement for quite some time. I understand he's as good or better with a handgun as his father. He's a pretty darn good writer too. Thanks, my friend.

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