The recipe comes from South Moravia, where locals have great respect for traditions and the old ways. One such tradition includes cooking rabbit in classic stone ovens using oak wood. Eating rabbit is as important a part of history as wearing traditional folk costumes and celebrating the harvest.

For more information about the South Moravia Region, from which this recipe comes, click here.

Ingredients

The rabbit
1 whole rabbit or 6-8 pieces of rabbit meat
1 onion
1 lb bacon
1 Tbs margarine
1 2/3 cup broth
1/2 cup wine

The stuffing
4 garlic cloves
3 eggs
6 pieces sliced white bread, or 4 hot dog buns
4 Tbs butter
1 cup milk
1 parsley sprig
ground mace (spice) to taste
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

The rabbit
The first thing you can do is to prepare a pot or big pan. Melt margarine in the pot or pan on a stove. In the meantime, take the rabbit and cut it into 6 – 8 pieces of the same size and salt them. The number of pieces also indicates the number of portions. Take the bacon and lard the bacon into the pieces of rabbit meat, or simply wrap it into it, but do not use all the bacon. Now you are free to put the meat into the pot/pan and roast it at 400F. Do so quickly in order for the meat to stay juicy. Cut the rest of the bacon into small pieces and put it aside for now. What you want to do next is slice the onion and garlic. (You can also shred them in a shredder.) Once you have done all that, you can put the remaining bacon and shredded onion into the pot along with the meat. Roast the rabbit until it gets a golden brown color, approximately 45 minutes. Add broth and wine to the pot/pan. Braise until the rabbit is nice and soft.

The stuffing
For the stuffing you first want to take the white bread or hot dog buns and tear them by hand or slice them into small pieces. Put into a bowl the bread pieces and milk. Let the pieces soak in the milk for a little while. In the meantime you can slice the parsley, and use another bowl to mix the eggs with a piece of butter. If you think the pieces of bread/buns in the milk are soaked enough, put them into the bowl with mixed egg and butter (only the pieces, not the milk). Add the sliced parsley, mace, salt, and pepper. You can now use whatever you please to mix all the ingredients together; washed hands are the best instrument for the job.

The rabbit with stuffing
Once you have the rabbit and the stuffing done, it is time to mix them together. Pour a small part of the stuffing into a mold first. Place the rabbit evenly around the mold and then pour the rest of the stuffing onto the rabbit and around it. Spread a little bit of butter on top. Now all we have to do is shove the mold with a lid into the oven and heat for 45 minutes at 350F, and then continue heating for another 15 minutes without the lid, until everything gets a good ol’ golden brown color. Take the rabbit out of the oven and get ready to serve it. Add salt and pepper to taste, and get ready to enjoy this traditional South Moravian recipe.