Hare, Roast

Ingredients

• a hare
• a pint and a half of milt
• salt and water for basting
• a little butter
• good brown gravy

Method

1. 1

   Prepare hare by cleaning and filling with forcemeat.

2. 2

   Roast at a distance from the fire, basting with salt and water, then switch to beef dripping.

3. 3

   Flour and baste with butter until browned.

4. 4

   Serve with gravy and red currant jelly.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 698. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a hare and cut it into joints. Divide two pounds of bacon into square pieces of about two inches, and fry them in three ounces of butter. Put into the pan with them the pieces of hare, a small sprig of parsley, thyme, and sweet marjoram, two bay- leaves, a shallot, twenty cloves, two blades of mace, a pinch of cayenne, a dozen peppercorns, and a little salt, if required. Fry them for a few minutes, then moisten with half a pint of good gravy. Cover the pan closely, and simmer gently for an hour and a half. Drain the pieces of hare from the liquid, pick the meat from the bones, remove the skin and sinew, mince it finely, and pound it in a mortar. Mix with it the fat and bacon, also pounded, and taste if the paste is sufficiently seasoned. Add the liquid, first boiling it dovra. till it is reduced to three-quarters of a pint, and then passing it through a hair sieve. Put the mixture into jars, cover these with a coarse paste of flour and water, and bake in a moderate oven for an hour. Take them out, and, when cool, cover the jars with melted lard or butter and after- Vards with bladder. If prepared in this way and kept in a cool place, the hare will keep good for several weeks. Probable cost, 6s. 6d., sup- posing the hare to coat 3s. 6d. Sufficient for ten or twelve persons. Hare, Potted (from cold meat).— Take the remains of cold roast hare. Pick the meat from the bones, put it, freed from skin and sinew, into a mortar, and pound till it is a smooth paste. If there is a pound of meat, mix with it a salt-spoonful of salt, a salt-spoonful of pepper, half a salt-spoonful of mustard, a salt-spoonful of sugar, and two cloves, pounded; also a quarter of a pint of cold gravy and four ounces of clarified butter. AVhen the ingredients are thoroughly blended, put the meat into a dish, make it smooth and even, and pour over it two ounces of melted butter. Keep it in a cool place until required for use. Time, about one hour to prepare. Probable cost, 6d., e.xclusive of the cold meat. Sufficient for five or six persons. Hare EagOUt. — Divide the hare into neat joints. Put the best parts — namely, the back, shoulders, and legs — into a deep dish ; pom- over as much vinegar as will barely cover them, and put with them one bay-leaf, a large onion, with six cloves stuck in it, half a dozen peppercorns, and half a dozen shallots. Let them remain in the marinade for twenty-four hours. Put two ounces of butter, three sliced onions, and three tea-spoonfuls of flour into a stewpan. Set the pan upon a moderate fire, and stir well with a wooden spoon till the onions are brightly browned ; add gradually a quart of water, make the mixture quite smooth, then put with it a bunch of herbs, four allspice, a sliced carrot, the inferior pieces of hare, such as the head, neck, liver, heart, and ribs, and a quarter of a pound of bacon, cut into slices. Simmer gently for an hour. Strain the gravy, and leave it until the following day, when the fat can be removed entire. Drain the hare from the vinegar and stew it in the vinegar until tender. Add salt and pepper, if required. Serve with forcemeat balls round the dish. A glass of port is always an improvement to hare, but this may be added or not. Time, tbree- quarters of an hour to stew the hare. Pro- bable cost, 3s. 6d. to 6s. Sufficient for six or eight persons. Hare, Roast. — An old hare may»be jugged or stewed, but should never bo roasted. Choose one, therefore, not more than three-quarters grown. The longer it can be kept good the better it will be. It is best not to be opened for three or four days, and the vent and mouth may be tied up if it is wished to keep it as long as possible. As soon as it is paunched the liver and heart should be taken out and scalded, the inside wiped dry every day, and dusted ■v^nth pepper, and the hare hung by the fore- legs in a cool dry place. As soon as it begins to grow limp it should be cooked. If there is any suspicion that it has been kept too long, let it lie in vinegar and water for an hour before it is put to the fire. Skin and wash the hare in three or four waters, the last time in luke- warm water. Pierce the skin of the neck, and any parts where the blood has settled, with the point of a sharp knife, and hold it in luke- warm water to draw the blood out. Fill it with good forcemeat, sew it up, and truss it firmly. Put it some distance from the fire at first, and when it is hot throughout place it nearer. It must be basted constantly, or it will be dry and hard. The usual plan is to baste it with salt and water for the first quarter of an hour, then to pour this away, and use a HAR ( 305 ) HAR pint and a half of milt, and, when tliis is dried up, finish with a Httlo hutter. It is a better plan, however, to use good beef dripi)ing until the last few minutes. When the hare is nearly- done enough, flour it, and baste it with butter till it is nicely browned. The time required for roasting will depend upon its age and size. A moderate-sized hare will take from an hour and a quarter to an hour and three-quarters ; a large one two hours. Take the hare up, re- move the string and skewers, and send a little good brown gi'avy to table with it, and the rest in a tureen. Red currant jelly should always accompany roast hare. Probable cest, 3s. 6d. to Gs. Sufficient for six or eight persons. Hare, Roast (another way).— Truss and stuff the hare as in the last recipe. Put it down before a clear fire for a few minutes, to set the flesh, then cover it all over with slices of fat pork or bacon. Roast it the usual time, and send good brown gravy

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.