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I want to make, "A brace of coneys" stew. It needs to sort of feel like rabbit is in there, but don't have any rabbit. What would be an easy to find, suitable substitute?

I've never even had rabbit so I am really clueless here. Can I add certain spices to beef? chicken? What would you suggest?

balanced mama
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    A friend once went to great lengths to obtain rabbit for a medieval recipe, but she could have saved a lot of time and a whole lot of money: the result was completely indistinguishable from chicken thigh meat. – Marti Dec 05 '12 at 20:08
  • Well good to know! I'm sure Gandolf, Samwise, Frodo, Galadriel and Legolas and Gimli will love it then :-) We're all setting out for a journey through a risk board game tonight. – balanced mama Dec 05 '12 at 20:26
  • Have you checked your back yard? I hear they stock different things in different regions, but around here just about every one has rabbits available on a regular basis. – Theodore Murdock Dec 05 '12 at 20:26
  • WoW! nope. not here. I could probably easily rustle up some rattlesnake that way though. – balanced mama Dec 05 '12 at 20:28
  • @Marti: seriously? I don't really find rabbit and chicken that similar in flavour (although I agree they have similar consistency/textures). Also, just out of curiosity: where are you located that it is so difficult to find rabbit (here in Southern Europe it is commonly sold in butcher/markets/supermarkets)? – nico Dec 05 '12 at 22:56
  • @nico: I'm in the good ole US of A. (We have lots of rabbits. Unfortunately, they're in our yard eating our landscaping, rather than all dressed and ready to cook in the supermarket. Ditto for deer.) – Marti Dec 05 '12 at 23:14
  • When I lived up north, my grandfather would shoot the deer during the off season with a bebe gun (sp?)to chase them out of the gardens. Then during deer season, we had to be careful that we didn't bite down too hard - The pellets sometimes stuck in the meat. – balanced mama Dec 05 '12 at 23:30
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    @TheodoreMurdock I wouldn't try the backyard rabbits, Tularemia is an ugly disease widespread in wild rabbit populations. – rumtscho Dec 05 '12 at 23:40
  • @rumtscho Wow, I wasn't aware wild rabbits could have anything dangerous, though I was more joking than making a serious suggestion. But knowing they can carry a disease that has a subsection of its Wikipedia article entitled "Tularemia as a biological weapon" gives me great pause. As does the bit about being able to catch the disease from inhaling it while skinning a rabbit, so thorough cooking wouldn't really make you safe if you have to butcher the animal yourself first. – Theodore Murdock Dec 06 '12 at 00:10

3 Answers3

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You could try something like chicken thighs. Rabbit is very mild in flavor but the texture is similar to thigh meat on a chicken or duck. You could try doing it with a young chicken (i.e. cornish hen, poussin) but I would take the skin off of whatever you decide to use.

Brendan
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In Spanish there is a saying: dar gato por liebre.

It literally means to give a cat as a hare, as supposelly they have the same size and similar shape, and would be indistinguishable when cooked.

Albeit you probably should get some pieces to a veterinary in order to check the cat had no diseases (as supposely a rabbit in a butcher would have been tested for), and have guts to eat a pet.

A note on the saying

(Please, feel free to edit this answer and delete this note if you think it's off topic: this is an open collaborative site)

The saying means to trick someone, to deceive: it doesn't have a literal meaning. Culturally, in Spanish speaking countries eating a pet is disgusting. But the saying gives us (Spanish speakers) the idea that both meats would be indistinguishable and, so, be a propper introduction for the answer.

J.A.I.L.
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  • I can't know for sure, having never eaten cat, but I would be astounded if its meat resembled rabbit at all: carnivores generally have very different meat than herbivores. – Marti Dec 05 '12 at 22:31
  • This is culturally repugnant and taboo in most English speaking cultures served by this website. – SAJ14SAJ Dec 05 '12 at 22:54
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    @SAJ14SAJ 1) even in cultures where cats are mainly a pet, eating them is not taboo, just highly unusual. 2) The site does not target Western cultures only, and while the language is certainly a barrier which means that most of our visitors are indeed English speaking, we are not giving the taboos of one culture preference over others just because we have a majority of this culture around here. 3) We have had this discussion on meta, eating meat from animals commonly kept as pets is on-topic, see http://meta.cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/31/horse-dog-pet-preparation-questions – rumtscho Dec 05 '12 at 23:48
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    @SAJ14SAJ Conclusion: you (and anybody else) is free to downvote the answer as an expression of your personal opinion, but it is not considered off-topic or unwanted content. – rumtscho Dec 05 '12 at 23:50
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    The OP's profile says she's in the US - so it's pretty unlikely that she wants to eat cat, and it'd be even harder to find than rabbit even if she did. Further, it sounds like that saying is about deception - passing off something bad as something good. For example, one reply says "This is a common phrase of my Mother's (she's Argentine) ... Hare is a common delicacy in Argentina, especially in the south. After butchering, a hare and a cat look very similar - but you wouldn't want to eat a cat..." – Cascabel Dec 06 '12 at 05:14
  • There are some comments related to Spanish language or culture. I initially didn't comment them in the answer, as considered off-topic and distracting, but will be glad to discuss them at the chat. – J.A.I.L. Dec 07 '12 at 07:50
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    @Marti I think what gives meat it's consistency/taste is not the diet of the animal. Porks and poultry eat similar things, but have completelly different meats. I haven't tried crocodile/alligator (carnivores) but after googling found many people saying it tastes like chicken. It fits the theory given in this answer. – J.A.I.L. Dec 07 '12 at 08:30
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    @jefromi- Cats are way easier to find than rabbits! Or do you mean pre-butchered? – Sobachatina Dec 11 '12 at 17:48
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I would agree with the first answer, chicken thighs would probably be the easiest closest match you'd find for rabbit. However, rabbit has a stronger more gamey flavour than chicken so you might want to consider ways of adding that gamey flavour back into the dish.

I'd think about what gamey flavours you could add, perhaps small chunks of venison or even possibly one of the game birds, pheasant, partridge, grouse etc would give you that gamey flavour.

spiceyokooko
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