Brother-in-law Steve (Lord Thorbiorn) used to make valiant efforts to keep down our rabbit population with his rifle; now he’s moved away, we’re overrun. Our kind neighbour Sam gives us some from time to time.

I’m now pretty adept at filleting them (the rabbits, not the neighbours). The fresher the rabbits, the easier it is.

The trick here is in separating the rabbit pieces. This can be done by hand quite well, if you have strong thumbs. It may take a couple of bunnies to get the hang of it. Discard the front legs – they are not worth the effort.

Make a spicy flour coating mix (pepper, salt, tumeric, saffron); coat rabbit pieces with egg and spiced flour; fry until golden brown. Add rounds from small carrots and some chopped leeks. Cover with ale and casserole. Eight rabbits was sufficient for 100 people; not everybody eats rabbit in the second course.

This is basically “Connynges in Cynee” from Forme of Cury, though I confess I saw something like it in a medieval cookery book and elaborated from there. The original thickens it with a mixture of blood and bread and doesn’t specifically mention flouring the meat, which itself will thicken the mix a bit. It specifies powdre fort. A cynee, as I understand it, is a runny sauce, or you can add more breadcrumbs and it becomes a bruet, rather thicker.

Lord Redfox did something similar with honey at an Okewaite campfire feast; actually I did most of it because he kept wandering off chatting to people as is his wont. It was pretty popular too; we used chunky onions and I think some garlic.