Rabbit Meat — Farmed & Delivered

Buy rabbit meat and you are cooking a lean, delicate, almost entirely white meat — closer to chicken than to game in flavour, but with a firmer texture.

Whole, jointed or loin?

Whole rabbit suits a pot roast or a stuffed-and-roasted centrepiece. Jointed rabbit (legs and saddle portioned) is the practical choice for a braise — rabbit with mustard and cream, a hunter-style tomato and olive braise, or a rich rabbit ragù for pasta. Loin fillets are the quick cut, wrapped in pancetta and pan-fried in a few minutes. Ours is Australian farmed rabbit, so it is consistently tender and mild, without the toughness or strong flavour of wild rabbit.

Cooking rabbit without drying it out

Rabbit has very little fat, and the lean saddle cooks far faster than the legs — which is why jointing and cooking the pieces to different times, or braising the whole thing in liquid, gives the best result. For a braise, brown the joints, then 45–60 minutes at a bare simmer until the leg meat is tender. For loin, sear hard and pull it at just-cooked; a minute too long and it is dry. Wrapping lean cuts in fat (pancetta, caul) helps. General raw-meat handling follows the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand guidance.

Farmed vs wild rabbit

Almost all rabbit sold in Australia is farmed, and that is what we stock — raised on a consistent diet so the meat is tender, pale and mild every time. Wild rabbit is darker, leaner still, and can be tough and strongly flavoured depending on age and season, which is why classic recipes for wild rabbit lean on long braises and marinades. If a recipe was written for wild rabbit, a farmed rabbit will cook faster and need less liquid.

Portions and pairings

A whole rabbit (around 1–1.4kg) feeds two to three; allow one hind leg or two front legs per person for a braise. Rabbit pairs with mustard, cream, white wine, bacon or pancetta, prunes, olives and rosemary — anything that adds fat and acidity to balance how lean it is.