Rabbit

Rabbit is a lean animal, and its meat tells you that the moment you touch it. Run your finger over it — the grain is fine, close, nothing loose about it. There are only 5.55 grams of fat per 100 grams, not much to keep it juicy once the heat gets to it. Cook it low, cook it slow, or cook it wet — braise, confit, stew — and it stays tender.

Choose rabbit by color and smell, not by size. The flesh should be pale pink, never gray, never with a sour edge to the smell. Press it — it should spring back, not stay dented. Fresh rabbit has almost no smell at all; that's the point.

Some people say rabbit is dry and bland because it's "too healthy," too little fat to carry flavor. No! Low fat plays its part, sure, but the real trouble is how people cook it, treating it like something that needs to be cooked through and through. Watch it instead — the flesh turns from translucent to opaque, and it firms up just slightly under your finger, and that's your moment to stop. Push past it, and the meat turns stringy and chews like rope, the mistake that gives lean meat its bad name.