Rabbit dogs and easy baked rabbit

30 years ago, I would have never thought I would come to love beagles so much.  I have always loved dogs and I have always been particularly fascinated by working dogs.  And it is not just one kind of working dog that I love to watch, but everything from the Alaskan huskies that run the Iditarod to the seeing eye dogs for the blind to the border collies that herd sheep.  The beagles entered my life thanks to my husband Mike.  Mike grew up on a farm in southern Ohio and as is typical for life on the farm, sons grew up hunting with their dads.  Mike always talked about a beagle that he had as a kid and how they enjoyed rabbit hunting on the farm.  So maybe 15 years ago, I bought him a beagle from champion field stock and Mike and I would take him out on the farm and hunt rabbits.  That is when I really started to become fascinated with these small hounds.  I find it totally amazing that through selective breeding man has bred a dog that will smell a very particular smell and bark at it and trail it.  While rabbit dogs do need training to listen to commands, they need no training to bark at the smell of a rabbit running on the ground.  Amazing.

That first beagle is long gone and now we have two beagles.  One is an older female named Gabby.  I picked her up at the local animal shelter about 3 years ago.  I really just wanted her as a pet, but the fact that she will hunt rabbits is a plus.  Our second beagle is a year old male named Buddy.  Earlier this year, we got Buddy from a friend of Mike's brother Mark.  I spent the summer letting the beagles run rabbits in the weedy creek bottom behind the house in order to get them ready for rabbit season.  I love just sitting back and listening to the hounds work.  It is so important that working breeds of dogs get to do what they were bred to do or if that is not possible, then they need to do something of equal importance.  I am digressing here a bit, but dealing with poorly behaved dogs every day, the number one reason that dogs get in trouble is they have way too much energy and they get way too little exercise.  And no, letting them roam by themselves in the fenced in backyard is not exercise for a highly energetic working breed of dog.

I've talked before about the importance of knowing where your food comes from.  Of course, since I raise chickens, we always have plenty of chicken in the freezer.  But we also eat a lot of wild game that comes from the farm.  Everything from deer to wild turkey to rabbit to squirrel gets eaten in our house.  Wild game is a nice healthy lean source of protein that is plentiful and doesn't require animals being raised in a large confinement facility.  Hunting also get me outdoors (which I love) and gives me a sense of being connected to nature.

But this blog is supposed to be about rabbits.  I baked a rabbit a couple days ago that probably was the best rabbit I have ever made.  The best part is that I did not follow a specific recipe, but instead, I just threw some ingredients together that I thought sounded good.  I must admit that I was looking for a way to prepare this rabbit that was easy so I did use a jar of prepared gravy from the store.  This is kind of cheating in a way, but it sure was tasty and made my life simpler.  I was so busy this past weekend that dinner prep needed to be quick and easy.  The other thing I did with this rabbit that was totally new to me was to slow cook it in the oven instead of the crock pot.  This worked very very well.

So here is my recipe for Easy Baked Rabbit:

1 rabbit cut into serving pieces
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 thick slice of onion cut into large pieces
2 slices of maple bacon
1/2 jar of prepared beef gravy

Put the rabbit pieces in a plastic bag with the flour and shake to coat.  Transfer the rabbit pieces to an oven cooking bag and arrange in one layer.  Sprinkle the garlic powder, salt and pepper over the rabbit pieces.  Put the onion pieces over top the rabbit next.  Then lay the strips of bacon over the rabbit.  Pour the 1/2 jar of gravy over the rabbit pieces.  Seal the oven cooking bag and baked in a preheated oven at 250 degrees for around 5 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.  Remove the rabbit pieces from the bag and pull all the meat off the bones.  Scoop out the gravy, onion and bacon from the cooking bag and mixed with the deboned rabbit meat. 

This works well served over rice.  I had made some brown rice, cauliflower and cheese casserole using a green cauliflower from our garden so I served that along side the rabbit.  It sure was very tasty!