This is Mike Robinson’s recipe Wild Rabbit Terrine | Farming the Wild, just with some extra notes from me (in italics).
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 1 – 2 skinned and de-boned rabbits, depending on size (you want about ½ lb of rabbit meat) – Note: I don’t always have rabbit in my freezer, so I have used lots of other meat. Duck breast, duck liver, venison tenderloin, etc. | |
| .25 lb. | Ground pork – Note: you can just add more ground venison or ground turkey if you don’t have ground pork |
| ¼ lb. | Ground venison |
| ½ lb. | Smoked "streaky" bacon to line your tin (about ½ lb should suffice) – Note: “Streaky bacon is what our friends across the pond call the most basic cheap bacon. This does not work as well with thick cut bacon.) |
| -½ teaspoon | Ground white pepper |
| -½ tablespoon | Sea salt |
| Handful of finely chopped parsley | |
| Handful of chopped pistachio nuts |
How to Prepare
- Take your rabbits and cut the backstraps out, keeping them whole (these will run through the center of your terrine when you layer it together.
2. Blitz/blend/grind the remaining rabbit meat (NO BONES!)
3. Mix the blitzed rabbit meat with the ground venison and pork along with the white pepper, sea salt, and parsley
4. Add the chopped pistachio nuts and get your hands in to mix very well
5. Line your baking tin with plastic cling wrap. Then layer your bacon north to south and east to west, leaving a 2-inch overlap that will fold back over the mix
6. Press about an inch of the seasoned meat mix into the bacon bed
7. Lay your rabbit loins/backstraps along the length of the tin, then fill the tin with remaining meat mixture to cover them
8. Tuck it all in with a bacon comb-over from each overlapping edge to the center of the tin
9. Wrap the cling wrap over tightly to make a neat sealed parcel
10. Place the tin in a larger tray. Pour water into the larger tray – this is a ‘bain-marie’ (a hot water bath)
11. Place the whole shooting match into a warm oven (200⁰F F) for 3 hours – Note: The bacon on the outside will look raw. It’s not, but because this cooks low and slow the color won’t change like we are used to with cooked bacon. It is perfectly safe too consume after 3 hours.
12. Remove the terrine package from the tin and allow to cool
13. Place a weight on top of the terrine and place in your fridge overnight – Note: I have used everything from a rock to canned vegetables for a weight, don’t overthink this.
14. To serve, be sure to use a clean and very sharp broad knife to slice the terrine into serving portions (be sure to wipe the blade with clean warm water between slices)