first, catch your rabbit

So begins an 1870 recipe for rabbit stew, and it was rabbit stew that Laura and Mary ate for breakfast on the day they moved into the cabin on the high prairie in Little House on the Prairie (see Chapter 6). This was the leftover rabbit stew with white-flour dumplings Ma made when Mr. Edwards stayed for supper.

Also called a fricassee, the rabbit was stewed in a thin white sauce, made of white flour and water. After killing and bleeding, the rabbit was dressed and washed, then cut into pieces. Dressing a rabbit doesn't mean to put it in a Benjamin Bunny coat and hat, but to prepare it for cooking, or in this case, to remove the guts, head, skin, and legs (a dressed rabbit will weigh about half what it did when alive), and to cut the meat into pieces, if desired. If you're not squeamish, know that your meat was alive before it showed up in your grocer's case all nicely wrapped in plastic, and you want to learn how to dress a rabbit, go HERE. Don't forget to salt the skin and peg it on a board to dry. It will make a warm fur cap for some little girl to wear next winter.

To make Caroline Ingalls' rabbit stew with white-flour dumplings, sprinkle the pieces (best if they have been soaking in salted water overnight) with salt and pepper, and then dredge them in flour. Brown in fat, cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until tender. This can take up to three hours. Remove the meat from the broth, and thicken broth with one tablespoon of flour per cup of broth (be sure you make plenty of gravy). Boil for a minute or two, then add dumplings, cover, and allow to steam for about twenty minutes. Pour dumplings and gravy over meat on a serving platter.

To make dumplings, Sift 2 cups flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cut in 2 tablespoons fat and add an egg beaten in a cup of milk. Drop by spoonfuls into boiling gravy and cook.

If you have a copy of Barbara Walker's Little House Cookbook (HarperCollins), there is a quite detailed recipe for stewed rabbit beginning on page 37. As Walker says in her cookbook, this is a recipe that has appeared many times in various forms, and hers is basically the same as the one above, taken from a 1920 Farm Bulletin.

Did you know that if you eat nothing but rabbit, you will die? Don't believe it? Check THIS out. (And prepare to laugh!)
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:30 PM