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Rabbits were a medieval royal luxury in England until the Black Death

54 points samizdis 1 day ago 27 comments

someperson 1 hour ago | parent

Rabbits were a common staple food source in Australia until 1950s when the myxoma virus was released which causes the disease myxomatosis.

lmpdev 1 hour ago | parent

Also our most successful rugby league team’s name was given as a derogatory put down: “Rabbitoh”, which was seen as a poor sales person flogging rabbit meat for money

South Sydney being a poor area, yielded the South Sydney Rabbitohs

ButlerianJihad 25 minutes ago | parent

Since their introduction for a spot of recreational hunting, European rabbits have had a devastating effect on the ecology of Australia in general. Hence the Rabbit-Proof Fence, and its corresponding novel and film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbits_in_Australia

shoobiedoo 58 minutes ago | parent

I've only eaten rabbit once and it was bathed in garlic butter so I don't really remember it. Besides the "tastes like chicken hehe" stereotype, is there any knock-your-socks-off dish made with rabbit where it's center stage?

aappleby 56 minutes ago | parent

Confit or cassoulet.

telotortium 54 minutes ago | parent

Paella is commonly made with rabbit in Spain.

felipeerias 33 minutes ago | parent

Rabbits are mainly native to the Iberian Peninsula.

setopt 29 minutes ago | parent

Within Europe, you mean? A quick Google suggest there were native rabbits also in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

telesilla 26 minutes ago | parent

If I recall, the word 'España' or 'Hispania' refers to an old word for 'hyrax', for which rabbit were mistaken for. Could be apocraphyl but it's a nice idea.

masklinn 24 minutes ago | parent

The european rabbit (and the domesticated rabbit, which descends from it) is native to the Iberian peninsula. There are ~20 extant species called rabbits all over the world (most though not all leporids outside of Lepus, the true hares).

cowl 23 minutes ago | parent

well they are native almost everywhere but according to legend it was named i-spn-ya (Land of the Rabbits) by the Phoenician although some suggest that SPN could also have meant North instead of rabbits so land of the north.

shaolinspirit 33 minutes ago | parent

rabbit stew

masklinn 32 minutes ago | parent

Rabbit is a pretty important part of traditional Maltese cuisine, rabbit stew is often considered a national dish, fried rabbit is also fairly common.

First time I heard of rabbit being considered to taste like chicken, they taste nothing alike.

xfq 28 minutes ago | parent

I like Sichuan's Zigong 冷吃兔 (cold-eaten rabbit)! Fried rabbit, dried chillies and numbing Sichuan pepper. Unforgettable.

b800h 22 minutes ago | parent

Hmm. It's made me think about Lièvre à la Royale (Hare à la Royale), but of course Hares are not rabbits (they taste gamier).

The guys from Fallow made a video on YouTube about attempting to make a really good one.

Apparently Lapin à la Moutarde is the classic rabbit dish.

trklausss 20 minutes ago | parent

It's quite common in Spain, in my family we eat that ~6 times a year. Honestly delicious, but I understand why people won't eat it.

a96 13 minutes ago | parent

Hare is pretty common game here in Finland and I think I must have eaten that fairly regularly when I was little but I have absolutely no recollection what it actually tasted like.

Only recipe I've seen was indeed a stew where the ingredients were almost "one rabbit, unholy amounts of garlic".

hizlikovboy27 29 minutes ago | parent

From Turkey, as far as I can tell, rabbit doesn’t show up much on menus so it seems to vary a lot by region. But if you have a recipe to recommend, I’d love to try it :)

tstrimple 10 minutes ago | parent

Recently stumbled across this cooking video featuring chefs trying to recreate Michelin recipes. Lièvre à la Royale (Royal Hare).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJtdtekV7xo

Let's just say it didn't make me want to try rabbit any time soon.

throwfaraway135 25 minutes ago | parent

Rabbit is very commonplace where I live, but I haven't tried it, it just looks to much like a rodent.

vargr616 10 minutes ago | parent

i have a very specific recipe passed down in my family, i boil in a mix of water and vinegar for about 20-25 minutes, before roasting it in the oven with potatoes and garlic. That way the specific taste and especially the smell is brought down, but it's otherwise very tasty.

This also works for goat or sheep meat.

rustyhancock 18 minutes ago | parent

It's says Rabbit was 4-5 times the price of chicken.

That seems a reasonable estimate to me even today.

mhd 18 minutes ago | parent

Any reason why they didn't get their own "meat name" then? I thought that the "cow/beef"-"pig/pork" split was due do that, with the initially Norman nobles consuming most of that luxury meat. Thus nothing for "chicken", either. Did "lapin" or something like that get lost?

delis-thumbs-7e 16 minutes ago | parent

The title buries the lead: rabbits executing hunters in the Smithfield Decretal illustrations. Seems British humour has a tradition at least to the 14th Century.

wood_spirit 8 minutes ago | parent

QI s05e03 “Eating” talked about how Hudson Bay trappers were so fond of eating rabbit that they died! Rabbit is so delicious that they didn’t eat a balanced diet and suffered - fatally - from lack of vitamins etc!!