Place quartered rabbit pieces into a 12 quart sauce pot with black pepper, red pepper, salt and enough water to cover rabbit.  Boil rabbit until tender.  This is determined by the age of the rabbit.  A young rabbit will be done in about 30 to 45 minutes but an old rabbit can take as long as 2 hours or more.  When fork tender done, remove rabbit pieces from broth saving broth for later usage.  Beat egg and milk together and dip rabbit into the mixture and allow excess to drain off.  Coat rabbit pieces in flour that has been seasoned with salt and black pepper.  Fry in a large skillet on medium/high heat until rabbit is golden brown; turn and brown the other side.  Remove rabbit from the skillet, drain on paper towels and tent loosely with aluminum foil or place in a 170 degree oven to keep warm.  Drain oil from skillet used and reserve 2 tablespoons of the oil and flour residue to make a roux aka gravy.  Add 2 or more tablespoon of all-purpose flour to the oil, a tablespoon at a time to the hot oil and cook until a dark brown color is obtained.  Add 2 cups of the rabbit broth and mix thoroughly with the oil/flour mixture stirring constantly to prevent sticking and simmer until the desired thickness is desired.  Add additional rabbit broth if needed to thin the gravy/roux.  This is a country version of roux (flour and oil). 

You can add the fried rabbit pieces to the gravy and simmer covered on low heat for an hour or more if desired.  The gravy needs to be much thinner than normal if you plan on simmering the rabbit an hour or more and you need to stir often to keep the rabbit from sticking to the pan.  Serve the fried rabbit and gravy with rice or mashed potatoes and a good batch of homemade buttermilk lard biscuits.

YIELD:  4 or more servings

Above rabbit and gravy prepared on 01-30-18 and was "off the chain good."  The yellow rice is what I call a poor man's saffron rice; used turmeric instead of saffron for the yellow color.  I planned the color scheme out for this photo shoot retake, however I left off the under layer of romaine lettuce.....grin if you must!  I noticed what I did or did not do, but it was too late and only placed a small piece of romaine lettuce at one end of the rabbit for the extra green color splash.

PRESSURE COOKER METHOD

Lately, I have been using a small 8 quart Presto pressure cooker and pressure cooking for twenty-five (25) minutes instead of boiling the rabbit.  However, I believe you have a little more flavor in the rabbit broth by boiling the rabbit for a couple hours versus the pressure cooking method in my humble opinion!

NOTE:  This was Pop's (William Porter's) favorite meal.  The last time my bride and myself eat rabbit and gravy at Mom & Pops, Mom cooked 3 rabbits and I believe Pop and myself eat a rabbit each, not to mention a "pile" of homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy.

Recipe from Ann Porter "Mom" with comments by Mickey Porter on 02-19-99.

Above rabbit and gravy prepared on 02-09-14 and was fantastic.  Kyle Johnson gave me five (5) fresh killed rabbits on the coldest evening we had this year so far but it didn't slow me down any;  put on a set of insulated coveralls and went to skinning and cleaning rabbits with rabbit fur flying everywhere at an accelerated pace.  I added about a teaspoon of my Wild Bill's Meat Rub to the all-purpose flour along with salt and freshly ground black peppercorns, (Tellicherry); substituted Crisco oil instead of the Canola oil.  The bottom piece of rabbit in the above pix is one of the hind legs and the top piece of rabbit is the back strap.  I pulled out a piece of the meat from the back bone in hopes to get your taste buds salivating............grin if you must!  Plated with the rabbit and gravy are:  white rice, honey glazed carrots and broccoli and Mexican Velveeta  Cheese.  That was some "beautimous" tasting rabbit and gravy and dragged one of those Mary B's T biscuits through that wonderful gravy.  Rabbit gravy is my all time favorite gravy, especially a rabbit that was harvested ahead of a pack of dogs.  The rabbit gravy has a much better and stronger tasting gravy versus a rabbit that is caught in a rabbit box or one taken while still hunting. 

Below pix taken 07-18-04.  I will add sequence pixs of the fried rabbit and gravy in the very near future.  Rabbit season is in and deer season is out, a very good time to be in the woods rabbit hunting with a pack of good running beagles listening to the sweet music being made and of course adding a fresh rabbit to the hunting coat and freezer.

The filet mignon of the rabbit is the back or loin strap, the largest piece of meat shown on the plate above.  Rabbit gravy in my humble opinion is the best flavored gravy to me I have ever tasted, especially if the rabbit was harvested ahead of a pack of dogs that ran ole burr rabbit a good while.  A box caught rabbit's gravy does not have the same sharp distinct flavor as one stressed ahead of a pack of dogs.   My second choice for gravy would be wild harvested Bob White Quail gravy. 

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 01-18-09.

Pix of my Mom's wild rabbit and gravy served on 02-16-04 with some home made buttermilk lard biscuits.  Pop and myself were "Tight as a Georgia tick on the back of a coonhound in the month of July."  Bill aka Mickey Porter.  Both my parents are deceased, but still have many, many wonderful memories from the past to enjoy. 

Pix of Ann and Bill Porter, my Mom and Pop....Pop passed away on August 10, 2007 and Mom on May 1, 2011.  I sure do miss them!

SMOTHERED AND COVERED WILD RABBIT AND GRAVY

INGREDIENTS:

2 rabbits, quartered                       2 cups plain all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon black pepper              2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
1 cup Canola oil or olive oil           1 egg
1 cup whole or evaporated milk   4 shallots, sliced thin
1 teaspoon bacon fat                    2 cups chicken broth (14 oz. can)
2 cups beef broth (14 oz. can)     2 cups water
1 teaspoon thyme                      1/4 cup all-purpose flour for thickening
1/4 cup water reserved

In a shallow pan, add 2 cups of flour and season with salt and black pepper.  In a bowl or pan whisk the egg and milk together and season with additional salt and black pepper.  Dredge the rabbit pieces in the seasoned flour and dip (drench) the rabbit in the egg and milk mixture allowing excess to drip off.  Dredge the rabbit pieces again in the seasoned flour coating each piece completely.  In a large skillet on medium heat add the Canola oil or olive oil and brown rabbit on all sides removing when browned.  In a small sauce pan, add one teaspoon of bacon fat or extra virgin olive oil and sauté the sliced shallots a few minutes until sweated down.  In a 12 quart stock pot add chicken stock, beef stock, water, salt, black pepper, thyme, shallots and rabbit and bring to a boil and reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 to 3 hours until rabbit pieces are tender.  A young rabbit will take less than an hour and an old rabbit will take 3 hours or more on low heat (simmering).  Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.  Once rabbit pieces are tender, mix together 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup of cold water and add to the rabbit mixture and allow gravy to thicken.  I added the flour and then the water to a quart Mason jar and sealed tight and shook the jar violently until the flour and water were thoroughly mixed.

YIELD:  4 or more servings.

Above Smothered And Covered Wild Rabbit And Gravy served on 01-24-09.  The reason for the smothered and covered was that I brain locked, ok had a senior moment or CRS (Can't remember sometimes) and fried the wild rabbit before parboiling for an hour or two depending on how tough/old the wild rabbits are!  The recipe changed as follows:

Following sequence pixs taken.  I left a few pixs out, but got most of them though:  Click on thumbnails for a larger image.

I normally parboil the rabbit before I fry them out especially if they are older rabbits.  I planned to take sequence pixs and you guessed it, got ahead of myself and had to salvage this recipe and changed "directions in the middle of the stream."  Go ahead and grin now!  You can eliminate parboiling on a very young rabbit unless you plan to simmer them for several hours like I did today.

RABBIT PREPARATION

Above seven rabbits ready to vacuum seal and freeze.  Saved three for my number one Brother-in-Law Douglas Pettigrew of Reidsville, NC.

See my webpage: http://portercalls.com/rabbit_skinning_101.htm showing the skinning process.

An alternate gravy selection is to use a couple cans of Cream of Mushroom soup like I do on my Country Style Venison Steak And Gravy and sauté a couple onions sliced adding to the mixture. 

Like I stated earlier, wild rabbit gravy is my favorite gravy.

Pix of Mom and Mickey taken Christmas 2010, courtesy of Susan Pettigrew, my lovely Sister:

Bill aka Mickey Porter 01-24-09 with updated pix on 02-09-14, 10-27-14 and 01-30-18.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE