Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Hare Soup. — Take a fine hare, skin and empty it, cut it into joints, take out the eyes, spht the head in two, and put it, with two pounds of the shin of beef, cut into small pieces, into a saucepan, with a gallon of cold water. Eemove the scum as it rises, and, when the water boils, put with it two onions, with three cloves in each, two or three sliced carrots, half a dozen peppercorns, and half a drachm of bruised celery-seed, tied in muslin. Let the soup simmer very gently for two hours, then take out the best joints, remove the meat from the bones, return the latter to the stewpan, and simmer again for another hour, during the latter part of which a dessert-spoonful of salt and a bimch of sweet herbs, tied in muslin, may be added. If these are put into the soup too soon, their flavour will evaporate. Fry two chopped onions in a little butter, mix very smoothly with them two table-spoonfuls of ground rice or flour, moisten with a little of the liquid, then add it to the rest. After it has boiled, strain it through a colander, pick off the meat from the pieces of hare which were left in the soup, pound it in a mortar, pass it through a coarse sieve, and return it to the liquid ; put in the pieces of hare which were set aside, and when they are thoroughly heated, add the blood of the hare, if this is liked. A little of the soup must be mixed with the blood at first, and it must then be added to the rest. The soup must only simmer a few minutes after the blood is added, for fear it should curdle. The addition of the blood is considered by many a great improvement, but by others is strongly objected to. Add a quarter of a pint of port, and serve with forcemeat balls in the tureen. Sufficient for six or eight persons. Probable cost, 2s. per quart, supposing the hare to cost 3 s. 6d. Hare Soup, (another and a richer way). — Cut a hare into neat joints, and put them into a stewpan, with four ounces of butter, half a pound of lean ham, cut small, two sliced carrots, two sliced onions, a sprig each of parsley, marjoram, and thyme, a blade of mace, four or five cloves, a bay-le>af, and four shallots. Fry them for three or four minutes. Pour over them three quarts of good stock, and simmer gently for two hours from the time when the soup boils, being careful to clear ofiithescum as it rises. Strain the soup. Remove the meat from the back of the hare, and put it aside. Pick off all the rest from the bones, and pound it and the ham in a mortar, with two ounces of stale bread-crumbs, which have been soaked in the liquid. Pass the paste through a sieve, mix it with half a pint of port, return it to the saucepan, and simmer a quarter of an hour longer. Season with salt and cayenne according to taste, put in the pieces from the back, and, when these are hot, serve immediately. Time, altogether, three hours. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. per quart, exclusive of the wine. Sufficient for eight or ten persons.