Cooking with Jacques Pepin in Mo'Vegas

Some of the best stew ever had in Lamoille County was rabbit with a French name (lapin). A recent Burlington Free Press article may help revive interest in this meat, advising it be cooked “low and slow.” That’s perfect for our winter months.

Sixteen year old Josh Gillen (McKinstry Hill Rabbitry) takes excellent and kind care of his stock, and he supplies a few restaurants and Yourfarmstand.com in Morrisville with fine rabbit meat. Josh is a very earnest and serious young man, and learning how to market and vend through Yourfarmstand.com is like a mini-business school.

Rabbit is an “old” source of nutrition; we’ve been eating it since human time began. It can be grown in small areas and uses fewer resources to produce protein. It can be grown in raised hutches creating a rich to use in vegetable production.  The American Rabbitry Association has this to say about rabbit meat:

• Rabbit meat is all white meat.
• Rabbit has 795 calories per pound. Compare: chicken at 810, veal at 840, turkey at 1190, lamb at 1420, beef at 1440 and pork at 2050.
• Rabbit has the highest percentage of protein.
• Rabbit has a lower percentage of fat than chicken, turkey, beef, or pork with unsaturated fatty acids at 63% of the total fatty acids.
• The cholesterol level in rabbit meat is much lower than chicken, turkey, beef, pork.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has stated that domestic rabbit meat is the most nutritious meat known to man.
• Research shows that rabbit meat has been recommended for special diets such as for heart disease patients, diets for the elderly, low sodium diets, and weight reduction diets.
• Because it is easily digested, it has been recommended by doctors for patients who have trouble eating other meats.

I highly recommend Jacques Pepin as a source of great rabbit recipes, particularly stew. Everything I ever made from a Pepin recipe has turned out well; he is the master. This week, I’ll be providing his recipe in all orders from the Morrisville Yourfarmstand.com. (Vegans and vegetarians, please forgive me.) McKinstry Hill rabbit meat arrives frozen and carefully packaged. Try it!

And that’s the Bounty of the County.