What to Serve With Rabbit and Small Game

Rabbit and squirrel are the easiest game to feed to a sceptic, because neither tastes remotely the way people fear wild meat tastes. Both are mild, both are pale, and both sit far closer to chicken than to venison on the plate. The catch is that they are even leaner than chicken, and leanness in a small animal shows up fast.

Hare is the exception in this group and is dealt with separately at the end.

What you are actually working with

Mild and pale. A cottontail or a grey squirrel has a clean, faintly sweet, nutty flavour. There is no iron note to work around and no strong game character to mask, which means the plate can be simple and comforting rather than corrective.

Extremely lean. There is almost no fat on a rabbit, and what little exists renders away quickly. Any cooking method that dries the meat out will, and fast.

Tough in the front, tender in the back. The saddle and loin of a rabbit are tender and suit quick cooking. The front legs and shoulders are working muscle and want time and liquid. Squirrel is tougher throughout and is braising meat almost by default, particularly an older animal.

Age is the main variable. A young rabbit can be roasted. An old one, and most squirrels, want a pot.

The three things the plate needs

Fat, prominently. Bacon, cream, butter, olive oil, or a stew with pork in it. This is the group of animals where adding fat matters most, because there is simply none in the ingredient.

Something starchy and soft. Mash, polenta, dumplings, pasta, or good bread. Rabbit and squirrel dishes are usually braises, and braises need something to sit on.

Mustard or a mild acid. Mustard with rabbit is one of the great classical pairings, and it works because a little sharpness lifts a mild meat that can otherwise read as flat.

Sides that genuinely work

• Mustard cream sauce, the classic French treatment for rabbit and still unbeaten.
• Soft polenta or mashed potato, under anything braised.
• Tagliatelle or pappardelle with a shredded rabbit ragu.
• Bacon and onions, cooked into the braise rather than served beside it.
• Buttered peas and carrots, which sounds plain and is exactly right with a mild meat.
• Cider-braised apples and leeks, especially with rabbit.
• Biscuits and gravy with squirrel, which is the traditional Southern American treatment and genuinely good.
• Wild mushrooms, which suit the nuttiness of squirrel particularly well.

Herbs and spices that belong

Thyme and bay through everything. Mustard, in the sauce and as a coating. Tarragon, which is the classic rabbit herb and worth using deliberately. Rosemary, lightly. Sage, particularly with anything involving pork or bacon. White pepper for cream sauces. Garlic, freely - these mild meats take it well. Paprika in a stew.

Keep the spicing gentle overall. These are subtle ingredients and a heavy hand simply produces a dish where the animal is irrelevant.

Wine and other drinks

Rabbit is a white-wine meat more often than not. A dry Chenin Blanc, a white Burgundy or a dry cider all suit a mustard-and-cream rabbit. For tomato-based or red-braised dishes, a light red works: Pinot Noir, a Loire Cabernet Franc, a young Sangiovese. Squirrel in a brown gravy takes a light red or a brown ale comfortably.

Without alcohol, dry sparkling apple is the natural partner, especially with anything cider-braised.

The mistakes that spoil good meat

• Roasting a whole rabbit dry. Almost guaranteed to produce sawdust. If you roast, bard it with bacon, keep it short, and rest it.
• Cooking the saddle and the front legs together for the same time. Two different ingredients, as with birds. Separate them.
• Under-salting. Mild lean meat needs seasoning confidence.
• Skipping the browning. A pale braise tastes pale. Brown the pieces properly first, in a hot pan, in batches.
• Ignoring food safety with wild rabbits. Tularemia is a genuine risk in some regions and seasons: wear gloves when skinning, avoid animals that seemed sick or unusually slow, and cook rabbit thoroughly rather than pink. This is not a meat to serve rare.
• Throwing away the liver and kidneys, which in a healthy young rabbit are excellent and take two minutes in butter.

Hare is a different animal

Do not plan a hare dish from this page. Hare is dark red, strongly flavoured, rich and much closer to venison than to rabbit - it is one of the most intensely flavoured meats in European cooking. It wants the venison treatment: long braising, juniper, red wine, redcurrant, and a robust red on the table. Jugged hare and civet de lièvre exist precisely because the animal is so rich. If you have a hare, read the venison pairings instead and treat the two as relatives.

For skinning, portioning and handling small game in the field, see from the harvest.