Catch and Cook BRINED Rabbit!

It's wabbit season! While everyone else was sitting inside, bemoaning the frigid temperatures and football related news, I decided to go out into the 4 degree weather and hunt the elusive cottontail rabbit.

Well, they aren't exactly elusive. They are widespread and bountiful as a species, however, for the walking hunter (the name of my new magazine) who has no dogs and is accompanied by no pals, a solo rabbit hunt can be a real challenge.

On previous squirrel hunts, I would often spook up a rabbit along thick hedges, but since squirrel hunting is a more listening type hunt, I would always lose my shot while trying to put my earbuds in. So, this time, I focused on walking the edges of woods, particularly in areas with thick brush. While this may seem tedious, it's no more so than sitting in a tree stand for five or six hours. You have the benefit of walking and keeping up your circulation, but you need CONSTANT VIGILANCE!! (let the reader understand)

WELL, after walking for about three miles and four hours, I was heading back to my car and came across a promising patch of thorn bushes. I held my gun ready and walked alongside it...and WOOP, out jumped a big cottontail. They're not usually moving fast on that first spook up, so I got him in my sights and fired...and missed. Cursing, I shoved through the brambles and into the underbrush. Rabbits don't tend to bound away like deer. Rather, they'll move almost like knights do in chest, preferring to hop ten or twenty feet away into a hole or thick brush.

So, if you spook up and rabbit and miss, the first thing to do is to make sure there isn't a den nearby. If there is, like a hollowed tree or a ground hole, it's a good chance they dove inside. That being said, it's possible that the rabbit made a tactical error and went to some other form of cover. In that case, you can hang a small distance away from the den and walk the brush, waiting for him to spring up and make a dash for his home.

I searched around to the left of where I'd seen the rabbit and was convinced there wasn't a den close by, so I began pushing back the other way. My persistence was rewarded. The rabbit bounded out from under a clump of brambles and froze. This time I didn't miss.

Cutting the backstraps from the saddle

My Not-Exactly Full Rabbit Recipe:

Brined Rabbit: So, I won't include a full recipe here because it didn't work that well for me. More research is needed I guess. What I will do, however, is sing the praises of brining meat. For the rabbit, I used a wet brine.

Avast, le goober has found an oven mitt

What is a brine? Basically, a brine is using salt to pull out moisture or blood from meat. You know that gamey flavor that ruins a squirrel dish? This will help mitigate that. It also helps to break down proteins in the meat and makes it more tender. In fish, it's what you do before you smoke it. Brining is also used in pastrami, roasting whole birds, making cured meats, and a number of other culinary arts. Learn to brine. You won't regret it.

Rabbit broken down into fore and hind-quarters, skeleton, and backstraps. 

So, what I did with this rabbit, and what you should also do with squirrel or any other strong meat, is brine it overnight. Here's a simple brine recipe that works well for most meats.

Simple, spice brine:
1 pot of water. Enough to cover the meat.
1 tablespoon of peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of fennel
2 crushed garlic cloves
about 3% of water weight in salt. (if you don't have a scale, just add around a tablespoon or two of salt per gallon of water)

Method:
1. Bring water to a low boil
2. Stir salt and spices into the water until salt is dissolved
3. Let brine cool to room temperature.
4. Place meat in brine and set in fridge for 24 hours.
5. Take meat out of the brine and pat dry. It's ready for your recipe!