River Cottage

Give this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall rabbit haggis recipe a go - we dare you

Hugh: "You can buy hog casings, mincers and sausage-stuffing machines from naturalcasingco.co.uk. Alternatively, you can ask your butcher to mince the meat for you (chop the onions very finely yourself), then omit the casings and bake the mixture as a terrine rather than haggis."

Makes about 25 haggis (sausages)

• Around 5m natural hog casings
• 500g rabbit offal (we used the liver, heart and lungs of about 20 rabbits)
• 500g boned-out rabbit meat
• 500g onions (2 large ones), roughly chopped
• 500g streaky bacon, roughly chopped
• 250g pinhead oatmeal soaked overnight in water, then drained well
• 2 tsp ground mace
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• A good pinch of allspice
• A generous pinch of freshly ground black pepper
• 12g salt
• Butcher's string

How to make rabbit haggis

1. Wash the salt off the casings and leave them to soak overnight in cold water.

2. Combine the rabbit offal and meat with the onion and bacon. Put the mixture through a mincer, using a 2mm plate so the mince is not too fine, and making sure the ingredients are mixed well together. Put in a large bowl.

3. Add the soaked, drained oatmeal, the spices and salt and mix thoroughly with your hands.

4. Form a walnut-sized nugget of the mix into a little patty and fry in a hot pan until cooked through. Taste it to check the seasoning.

5. When you are happy with the seasoning, stuff the mixture into hog casings, using a sausage-stuffing machine. Pack the mixture hard into the stuffer to make sure there are no air bubbles. Form into sausages about 12cm long. Tie these at each end with butcher's string, leaving a little gap between the stuffing and the string to allow for the expansion of the stuffing as it cooks.

6. Prick each haggis a couple of times with a pin. Put them in a large pan and add enough water to just cover them. Bring to a simmer, then simmer very, very gently for 20-30 minutes. Serve piping hot.

7. If you're making a terrine, rather than haggis, line a 32cm terrine dish with two layers of clingfilm. Pack the mixture into it. Put in a large oven dish and pour in hot water to come halfway up the sides of the terrine. Cover the terrine with a lid, or with foil. Bake at 180°C/gas 4 for about 1½ hours, or until cooked through (the meat should shrink away from the sides of the mould and feel firm to the touch). Leave to cool, then refrigerate with a heavy weight on top to compact the mixture.

8. Unmould the terrine and cut it into slices. Serve as they are, with bread and pickles, or fry them until crisp.

© River Cottage