Small game recipes

6speed

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Now that cabin fever has started to settle in I'm getting the hankering for some little critter hunting. Post up your favorite recipe especially for rabbit/hare and the Eurasian doves that seem to be taking over.
 
Crock pot, fresh veggies, beef broth, some salt and pepper, and as many cotton tails it’ll hold. Start it in the morning and enjoy for dinner. So easy, even I can do it. And thanks...now I know what I'll be doing this weekend!
 
How do you know when you can't eat a rabbit (don't some of them have diseases or something)?
 
I like to debone rabbits and cut them into bite sized chunks and flour them and then dunk them in beer batter (I like to put hot sauce in my beer batter) and deep fry them. With squirrels I usually just quarter them and put them in some seasoned flour and fry in some bacon grease, then make a white country gravy out of the pan drippings and serve with buttermilk bisquits.
 
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I make a pretty good rabbit pot pie too....

I use premade pie crust and get them laid out flat and work the seams with some egg wash to get them back together. Put one crust in a 9 inch pie tin and poke a couple of holes in the bottm with a fork. Put it in the over at 425 for about 7 minutes or so, until the crust firms up a bit and just starts to brown.

Thaw out (or use fresh and blanche) mixed veggies of your choosing and heat them up and drain them. Sautee your deboned rabbit chunks in some oil..not too much...and brown them. Add in some chopped garlic and onions and deglaze the pan with a little chicken stock. Chop a large potato into vey small cubes and add to the chicken stock/rabbit mix and add your veggies to it. Cook until the liquid is mostly dry...but keep the heat low enough so you don't burn your garlic. Once the liquid is mostly cooked out add a can of cream of mushroom soup and about 1/3 of a can of milk and wisk well. You can use any 'cream of' type soup. Once the lumps of soup are broken up and it's smooth salt and pepper to taste and add any other seasonings you like, then pour the mixture into your pie crust that you already baked. Lay the top crust over it and cut the edges to size. Pinch the edges together and egg wash the seam. Cut about 3 or 4 1 inch slits into the top crust and put it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350, or until the top crust is nicely golden brown. Make sure to put a cookie sheet or somthing under the pie tin because it will leak sometimes and bubble over. Let cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy!!
 
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ooooo la la.....my buddy owns a bbq place in town and told my son he'd give him $5 bucks for a rabbit or squirrel.
 
I like to debone rabbits and cut them into bite sized chunks and flour them and then dunk them in beer batter (I like to put hot sauce in my beer batter) and deep fry them. With squirrels I usually just quarter them and put them in some seasoned flour and fry in some bacon grease, then make a white country gravy out of the pan drippings and serve with buttermilk bisquits.

Cottontail cut up like a chicken.... fried same way. Gravy from the cracklins w/bisquits. Have not had any in years. Market rabbit not the same.
 
Those sound great does anyone know how snowshoe compares to cotton tail.
 
Don''t know about the snowshow, But some good squirrel sounds good May have to run out back and knock off there or four.

squirrel boiled till the meat is falling off the bone them put in skillet fried in some grease and leave some gracklins for some brown gravy. put res of squirell back into water to make some dumplins with. Also a batch of buttermilk cathead biscuits. mmmmmmmm
 
Tuleremia...they have spots on their livers...and they act wierd and not afraid of humans...sort of like rabies in a dog

Hope not like that white rabbit in Monty Python and The Holy Grail! ;)

Reading these recipes is gonna make me get out in the woods real soon!
 
I was just thinking of taking up bunny hunting again as they are thicker than flies around my place here in NM. Used to hunt them in CA many years ago til they started being full of worms and Tuleremia.
Missing my crockpot stew,catchatorre(sp) ,and fried rabbit,besides needing a break from elk....lol.

I do have some Prairie Dogs here 1/4 mi away from were they are thick. And those things get PLAGUE here and disappear once in a while.

Are they (Cottontails)safe to eat with Pdogs in area? I was going to ask neighbor GW when he's not out looking for poachers.
 
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I don't recall where I picked up this recipe but I tried it and it was quite good.

Pre-heat oven to 400°

1 rabbit (cut up)
2 Tbs olive oil
Minced garlic
Salt and pepper

Sauce:
1.5 cups chicken broth
1 Tbs sage
4 Tbs honey
4 Tbs mustard

Rub rabbit with salt and pepper. Brown rabbit in olive oil and remove from pan. Soften garlic in same oil and then remove from pan. Add rabbit back to pan and put garlic on top. Mix sauce ingredients and pour over rabbit. Put in oven. Cook 30 minutes and then turn. Cook 20 minutes then turn. Cook an additional 10 minutes then serve. (Sauce will thicken while cooking).
 
Pluck doves.

Sprig of rosemary, a bay leaf and a couple of grapes in cavity. Brush with oil/bacon grease, salt and pepper and grill 2-3 min on each side.

One of my favorites.

Doves%20on%20the%20grill.jpg
 
Squirrel or rabbit gravy is hard to beat in my book. I just cook the squirrel/rabbit til it falls off the bone in a crockpot and get the meat out. I make up gravy by heating flour/shortening on very low heat and add in milk slowly until it thickens. Add in salt, pepper and the meat. It goes great over homemade biscuits or over the biscuits-in-a-can too.
 
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