The Hungry Canary

Adapted from Ideals Family Cookbook · Anna Schultz

Hasenpfeffer

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Ingredients

  • 2½ lb rabbit, cut into pieces
  • 1¼ cups water
  • ¾ cup vinegar
  • 1 sliced fennel bulb (original: 1 sliced onion)
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 10 whole cloves
  • 2 tsp salt, divided
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • ⅓ cup sorghum flour (original: flour)
  • ⅓ cup shortening
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 cup sour cream

Directions

  1. Combine rabbit, water, vinegar, sliced fennel, bay leaves, cloves, 1 teaspoon of the salt and pepper in a nonreactive covered bowl. Refrigerate for 3 days, keeping the meat fully chilled; turn occasionally if needed.
  2. Remove the rabbit, reserving the marinade. Discard spent spices as desired. Pat rabbit dry and coat lightly with sorghum flour mixed with the remaining teaspoon salt.
  3. Melt shortening in a heavy skillet and brown the rabbit on all sides, turning frequently.
  4. Strain the reserved marinade. Add 1 cup of it gradually to the skillet with the brown sugar. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook about 1 hour, or until rabbit is tender and reaches 160°F.
  5. Stir in sour cream just before serving, warming gently without a hard boil.

Original source

“Hasenpfeffer,” by Anna Schultz in the Ideals Family Cookbook, Game section. The rabbit is refrigerated in water, vinegar, onion, bay, whole cloves, salt and pepper for three days. It is then dredged in flour, browned in shortening, simmered with one cup strained marinade and brown sugar for an hour, and finished with sour cream.

Hungry Canary substitutions

Replace the original 1 sliced onion with one sliced fennel bulb, and the ⅓ cup flour with sorghum flour. Preserve the original three-day refrigerated marinade. Use food-safe cold storage throughout and a nonreactive container for the vinegar marinade.