Fortnum & Mason’s rabbit potted in duck fat

Fortnum & Mason’s rabbit potted in duck fat is doubly preserved, first by curing with traditional English spice and then by potting with the traditional technique. A particularly good recipe from Tom Parker Bowles and (a little) innovative in its use of the fat instead of butter and in cooking the rabbit with it.

For the cure:

• about 6 oz good coarse salt; we like Maldon
• 3 peeled, smashed and minced garlic cloves
• 1 Tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 Tablespoon ground fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
• heaped teaspoon dreid thyme
• ½ teaspoon powdered bay
• 4 rabbit legs

For the pot:

• about 1 lb duck fat
• a peeled carrot cut lengthwise in quarters
• a quartered shallot
• a sprig of rosemary
• a chopped bunch of parsley leaves (no stems)

1. Mix together the ingredients of the cure and put the rabbit legs in a quart freezer bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible, seal the bag and refrigerate it for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350˚.

2. Rinse the cure from the rabbit legs and dry them thoroughly.
3. Drop the rabbit into a heavy oven pot with the carrot, shallot and rosemary, add the fat and simmer the fat to cover everything.
4. Cover the pot with a round of silicone or parchment paper, top it tightly with the lid and bake it until the meat is easy to pull from the bone.
5. Pull the legs, carrot and shallot from the fat with a pair of tongs and let them cool.
6. Toss the rabbit skin and pull the meat from the bones: Blast the carrot and shallot to small bits in a food processor.
7. Combine the meat and vegetables with the parsley in a bowl balanced on a bigger bowl filled with ice and water.
8. Heat and strain the fat and stir about a third or so of it into the rabbit mixture. It “should,” as Parker Bowles says, “emulsify.”
9. Pot the rabbit, in one or more pots, and film it or each one with fat.
10. Chill the potted rabbit but let it reach room temperature for service.

Notes:

-Our recipe is derived from The Cook Book: Fortnum & Mason Est 1707 (London 2016)

-Parker Bowles grinds his own spice for the cure, an exemplary if tiresome habit. His use of amounts of unground ingredients equal to our ground ones results in a higher proportion of salt.

-You could of course substitute duck itself or chicken for the rabbit.