I have never lived in a place with more rabbit then here metropolitan Boston. They are everywhere! Frederick Douglass tells us that in Talbot County, Maryland, enslaved folk hunted small game to supplement their woefully inadequate rations. He described how, when given free time, the “industrious ones of our number would employ themselves in” hunting raccoons, possums, rabbits. Silas Jackson, another man enslaved in Maryland, recalled, “All of the slaves hunted, or those who wanted to, hunted rabbits, opossums, or fished. These were our choice food as we did not get anything special from the overseer.” Rabbit (or hare) provided a free source of protein easy to catch and cook. Rabbit also provided a good-tasting break from pork and poultry. With short legs and predictable habitats, wild rabbits had been easier to hunt than other game such as deer.
Fried Rabbit with Sopping Gravy Recipe
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
1 rabbit cut in
2 cups of buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
For the Gravy
3 tablespoons pan drippings
¼ cup flour
1 ½ cup milk
Directions
Soak rabbit pieces in buttermilk for at least two hours, preferably overnight. Dredge in a mixture of flour, salt and pepper. Melt vegetable shortening in a twelve-inch, cast-iron frying pan over a medium heat (360 degrees F), heat until shortening shimmers. Place rabbit in skillet until brown. For the gravy, drain three tablespoons of shortening from the skillet. Add flour and stir to deglaze the pan. When brown, stir in milk and simmer until thickened.
Lettice Bryan, The Kentucky Housewife (Massachusetts: Applewood Books, 1839), vii.