Plated: Marlow and Daughters' Rabbit Sausage

This is a test of the Marlow and Daughters sausage-making capabilities. This is only a test.
Plated is a new feature that delivers the origin story of a dish, as told by an establishment’s chefs and owners. Maybe even once in a while by its dishwashers.

On the plate: Rabbit Sausage, a test drive dish for Marlow and Daughters, the new butcher shop from the owners of Williamsburg's Marlow and Sons and Diner, opening this week.

The players: Caroline Fidanza, chef; and Tom Mylan, butcher. Mark Firth and Andrew Tarlow, proprietors

Tom Mylan: "Originally I made this rabbit sausage for a rabbit choucroute garnie dish at Diner. We also made a mousse with the kidneys and the liver. At Diner, the dish comes with housemade sauerkraut. It's only 15 bucks or so which is really good, considering that it’s super labor intensive. The rabbits are from Quebec, which is about as local as we can get them on a regular basis. The belly, shoulder and loin get ground with cured pork belly—there's hardly any fat on the rabbits—some aromatics, and a little cream-soaked bread. Then we whip it in the Hobart to emulsify it. I can't imagine we're going to be doing this sausage that often, but I think it's an interesting thing and I'm kind of proud of it, especially because it was a big pain in the ass. Deboning rabbits is very tedious. It's like deboning kittens.

"Caroline Fidanza is running Marlow and Daughters and will be ordering the animals. Me and my apprentice Brent are going to be doing the cutting and running the counter—a small show. Nobody has really done this before, so we don't really know what to expect. Hopefully it'll go apeshit and it'll be great. In addition to different cuts of meat, we'll have rillettes, rillons and a rotating cast of sausages, including standard breakfast sausage. We're thinking we'll make different kinds of sausages once a week and when they’re gone, they’re gone. Maybe Wednesday will be sausage day."

The space: Marlow and Daughters’ address—95 Broadway—was most recently a barbershop. The physical location shares a street address with the site of the 19th century baseball club’s hangout. The Brooklyn Eckfords called nearby Union Grounds home field, and were active from 1855 to 1872.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Hugh Merwin in Food on December 15, 2008 3:30 PM

Comments [rss]

Mutuelle

Rabbit is tasty and very tender flesh but hare is better. Anyway , I never though in my lifetime to eat rabbit sausages. it should be commercialized and industrialized.

mutuelle

Mutuelle

Rabbit is tasty and very tender flesh but hare is better. Anyway , I never though in my lifetime to eat rabbit sausages. it should be commercialized and industrialized.

Emily

seriously? I don't understand why/how people can eat rabbits. To me, that is no different than a chef turning his dog, Fido, into sausage. Or roasting Toonces, the family cat.

MrCow

D:

John Del Signore

@ nyrangers: That was my edit and, unfortunately, it gave me no joy.

nyrangers

"especially because it was a big pain in the ass. Deboning rabbits is very tedious. It's like deboning kittens." hugh, did you get joy out of putting that in bold?

organicgal

Apparently rabbits are like chicken in Italy & in Italy, the chickens are skinny and dried out so you don't want to order the chicken. In Greece, it's similar. It's a cultural thing.

If you're going to kill an animal, these guys don't want to waste anything...like people did in olden times - waste not, want not. So if you're a meat eater, this is the eco way to go. Well, that and not eat SO much of it like in old school Chinese cooking where it's used as a condiment, not the major portion of the plate!

NannyState

I wonder if you get carpal tunnel from grinding rabbits all day.

SP

Nick S, you dingleberry, it is quite apparent that you know nothing about cooking or food. The texture on the side of the sausage is the mark of cheese cloth. This sausage was made by hand. In a kitchen. I'm sure you eat much more tube extruded industrial food made from floor sweepings than you do high quality crafted food such as this.

NEXT!

Barbj8

Waiter, there's a hare in my sausage!

Spirit of 76

The Aussies would love for you to eat more rabbits. They're drowning in the damn pests. Several hundred million of them overrun the continent.

grifforama

I live round the corner, and I cannot fucking wait for this place to open.

Nick S

im all for eating rabbit, but that picture is just unappetizing. the texture on the perimeter makes it look like it was cut out of a tube and not cooked.

NEXT!

hashashin

camera_club, if rabbits were an endangered species, then you might have a point. These rabbits are farmed, though, so the comparison is not a strong one.

camera_club

I'm all for indulging in some delicacies but eating rabbit seems right up there with slaughtering whales with uhhhhh whatever it is they slaughter whales for

camera_club

I'm all for indulging in some delicacies but eating rabbit seems right up there with slaughtering whales for uhhhhh whatever it is they slaughter whales for

maevemealone

Rabbit is adorable AND delicious

starrygordon

I noticed one of the chefs compared deboning rabbits to deboning kittens and I couldn't help wondering what kind of experience they had with that.

gamblor

#4, it's entirely possible that the farm you mentioned or other local farms just don't have the means or the supply to regularly furnish Marlowe with what they need for their business. These people have been running restaurants for a while now. I wouldn't jump to assume that they were just lazy.

ur doing it rong

rabbits are seriously delicious. As a sausage I dunno.

But rabbit, just like pigeon, is something most of us Americans are really missing out on.