...rabbit pie

 Farmers vs rabbits   Hunting   Warren ripping   Poisoned baits

The Great Depression had brought tough times, a shortage of money and no work. Rabbit meat was a major source of food for many country families. As Bob O'Neill Holmes recalls: "Every penny counted in those days. The older farming community, they more or less survived on rabbits."

Angus Forsythe recalls: "We used to supply the family, although we ran sheep on the property, it was more economical to eat rabbit. We all loved rabbit, cooked in different ways - mother used to stuff them, like you would a chicken, and roast them. For our family there would be three rabbits in a baking dish in the old oven, that would make a meal."

 Explore some rabbit recipes from Mrs Beeton's All About Cookery, 1909.

The country cook was very skilled at serving up rabbit stews, pies or roasts. As Bob O'Neill Holmes recalls: "Its very much like chicken. Some of the old bush cooks could knock up a pretty good meal. Nothing wrong with rabbit at all - so long as you had potatoes and onions, you could knock up a stew of some sort!" Many cook books have litanies of even more exotic dishes like 'Rabbit in Aspic' or 'Hasenpfeffer Rabbit' ... but there were always more rabbits than there were recipes.

A collaboration between Irwin District Historical Society and Australian Museums and Galleries Online.

           

Thanks to the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia for their generous assistance.

August 2002