Rabbit with mustard sauce and bacon

Rabbit in mustard sauce is the French bistro classic: rabbit joints braised in white wine with wholegrain or Dijon mustard, cream, and lardons. The mustard adds a sharp, pungent acidity, the cream adds fat, the bacon brings smoke and salt, and the rabbit itself is lean and mild with a slight gamey sweetness. The mustard is the structural challenge: it strips fruit from wine and amplifies bitterness in tannic reds. The wine needs enough acidity to sit alongside the mustard rather than below it, enough body to carry the cream, and no oak.