Rabbit terrine – Terrine de Lapin

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 1 rabbit, approx. 1.2 kg
• 30 g butter
• 200 pork necks
• 300 g bacon, fat
• 100 g ham, cooked
• 1 rabbit liver(s), alternatively chicken liver
• 100 g mushrooms
• 250 ml concentrated rabbit stock (from the bones and trimmings)
• 1 egg(s)
• 20 ml cognac
• 1 shallot(s), chopped
• 1 garlic clove(s), chopped
• 5 white peppercorns, crushed
• 1 pinch of cardamom
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp green pepper
• ½ tsp allspice, ground
• ½ tsp thyme
• ½ tsp lovage
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• Rosemary, chopped

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Rest period approx. 1 day; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes; Total time approx. 1 day 3 hours 10 minutes

fine starter or for the buffet

Cut half of the bacon into thin slices and line the pie dish with them. You’ll need more bacon later to cover the terrine. This works best if you freeze the bacon first. Chill the dish. Cut up the rabbit, remove the fillets, remove the remaining meat from the bones, and trim everything. Season the fillets with salt and pepper and sear them on all sides in hot butter together with the liver. Deglaze with the cognac. The meat will be cooked thoroughly with the terrine later. Searing only helps to stabilize the fillets later and makes further processing of the liver easier. Remove the meat from the pan and chill. Pour in the rabbit stock, add the shallot, garlic, peppercorns, and cardamom, and reduce everything to 50 milliliters. Pour the remaining liquid through a fine sieve and chill as well. Cut the remaining rabbit and pork into strips, mix well with salt, pepper, allspice, bay leaves, lovage, rosemary, and thyme, and cover and refrigerate for one hour. Then, grind the meat mixture twice through the finest disk of a meat grinder. Next, slice the remaining bacon, also grind it through the grinder, and mix it in portions into the stuffing. Add the egg and reduced rabbit stock and refrigerate everything again. Finely dice the liver, roughly chop the mushrooms, and dice the cooked ham, then mix everything with the stuffing. Using a teaspoon, scoop out a small dumpling, cook in hot water, and taste to see if it needs any additional seasoning. Pour half of the stuffing into the bacon-lined pie dish, press in the two fillets, and fill with the remaining stuffing, making sure there are no gaps around the fillets. Cover with bacon slices and cook in a water bath in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 70 minutes. The internal temperature should reach 65 degrees Celsius. Cool in the oven and then let it rest in the refrigerator for at least one day.