Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Rabbit, Sauces for. — Onion sauce, white sauce, white celery sauce, white mushroom sauce, -parsley and butter made with milk instead of water, and liver sauce are all suitable sauces for boiled rabbit. For roasted rabbit, brown sauce served with currant jelly, brown mushroom sauce, poivrade sauce, and liver sauce are most usually served. Liver sauce for boiled rabbits is made as follows : — Mix a table-spoonful of flour and a little cold milk to a smooth paste. Stir this into a quarter of a pint of boiling milk, and add a quarter of a pint of boiling water. Let this sauce boil gently for five or six minutes, stir it all the time, and add a slice of fresh butter. Mince finely the liver of the rabbit which has been boiled for twenty minutes. Rub it through a wire sieve, and stir it into the sauce. Add pepper and salt and a spoonful or two of cream if liked, pour the sauce into the tureen, stir a small piece of butter into it, and when this is dissolved, serve immediately. To make liver sauce for roast rabbit : — Wash the liver, throw it into boiling water, and let it boil for twenty minutes, mince finely, and rub it smooth with the back of a wooden spoon. Put it into a quarter of a pint of gravy, and add a tea-spoonful of chopped parsley, half a tea-spoonful of Liebig's Extract of Meat, a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, a pinch of grated lemonpeel, a smaU pinch of powdered thyme, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut rolled in flour. Stir the sauce over the fire till it boils, and serve very hot. Rabbit Sausages. — Skin, empty, and wash a couple of fresh young rabbits. Cut off the heads, divide the rabbits into joints, and pick the meat from the bones. Bruise the latter, and put them with the heads into a saucepan with as much cold water as will barely cover them. Let them simmer gently until the gravy is very strong, shaking the saucepan occasionally to keep the bones from burning. Mince the meat finely, and put it aside for a short time. Wash the livers, first carefully removing the gall-bags, put them in a stewpan with a slice of fresh butter, or if preferred a spoonful or two of water, and let them simmer gently until sufficiently done. Drain them, cut them up into small pieces, and put them with the minced rabbit. Weigh the meat, and with each three pounds put one pound of fat bacon coarsely chopped, adding an ounce and a half of salt, a quarter of an ounce of white pepper, two cloves finety pounded, and a pinch of powdered mace. Mix these ingredients thoroughly, and moisten the meat with the gravy strained and seasoned like the rabbits. A quarter of a pint of gravy will be enough for two rabbits, and it should be used while still warm. Fill carefully -prepared skins, and the sausages will be ready for boiling or frying. This preparation is very good put into one large skin, boiled gently until done enough, and served cold.