Cooking Older Rabbits

Nowadays most French recipes for rabbit call for one that’s relatively young, no bigger than 3 pounds [1.3 kg] after dressing—a lapereau instead of a lapin. Like most modem cooks, French or not, I once assumed that younger animals are tastier or at least more tender than older ones. I discovered my error one day after a restaurant customer gave me two giant rabbits he thought too old to eat, from his farm. I knew the only solution was to braise them for hours as though making a stew, and because I feared the lean meat would dry out during the long cooking, I knew they needed to be well larded. I had been wanting to make an authentic civet, which is a stew finished with the animal’s blood, like an authentic coq au vin. And now, since my farmer friend was killing the rabbits for me, I had my opportunity. I was thrilled with the results, but I knew that the real test would be the reaction of our largely French clientele. Several customers pronounced the rabbit a triumph, and one customer, from Alsace, who had grown up eating rabbit, pronounced it the best he had ever had.