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Hare Collops
Take the remains of cold hare, pick the meat from the bones, mince it finely, and season rather highly with cayenne and salt. For every pound of minced meat put one ounce of butter into the frying-pan, dredge a little flour over it and the meat, and keep stirring over the fire till it is a dark brown. Put half a pint of strained gravy, made from the bones and trimmings, into a saucepan, add the collops, and a glass of port. Simmer gently for half an hour. Serve on a hot dish, with toasted sippets for garnish. Probable cost, 4d., exclusive of the cold meat and wine. Sufficient for two or three persons, when made with one pound of minced meat.
A Victorian way with leftover roast hare, built on a browned flour-and-butter base and a strong stock made from the carcass. The whole dish depends on two things: a properly dark roux and a gravy with enough body to carry it.
- The hinge: browning the flour"Keep stirring over the fire till it is a dark brown" is the flavour of the dish, not a formality. Work over medium heat and give it five to eight minutes, stopping the moment it smells nutty rather than acrid; scorched flour will make the whole pan bitter and cannot be rescued.
- CollopsThe word normally means small slices or escalopes of meat, but by the nineteenth century it was applied loosely to minced or chopped meat cooked in a sauce, as here. Nothing needs to be cut into medallions.
- Half a pint of gravyImperial measure, so 10 fl oz, a scant 1¼ US cups. The recipe only says it is made from the bones and trimmings and strained; simmering them for an hour, with an onion and a bay leaf if you like, will do it, and a good beef or game stock reduced until it has some gelatine in it does the same job.
- A glass of portPeriod books rarely define it, though a wineglassful was commonly reckoned at about two fluid ounces. Two to three fluid ounces (¼ to a scant ½ cup) is the right order of magnitude for a pound of meat; more and the sweetness takes over.
- Half an hour is long for cooked meatThe hare is already roasted, and mince simmered thirty minutes will tighten. Ten to fifteen minutes is enough to marry the sauce and warm the meat through, and the sauce can be reduced separately first if it needs concentrating.
- If you have no hareRabbit is the obvious stand-in but is milder and leaner; leftover roast venison, or dark meat from a roast duck or goose, gives a closer match to hare's depth. Whatever you use, the stock should be made from the same animal.
- SippetsTriangles of bread, toasted or fried in butter, stood around the edge of the dish. Cut them from a firm white loaf and add them at the table so they stay crisp.
- Seasoning and yield"Rather highly with cayenne" suits the richness, but start at a quarter-teaspoon per pound and taste after the port goes in, since reduction concentrates it. Serves two or three as written; the 4d. costing covers only the butter, flour and stock-making.
Hare was among the commonest game on British tables in the nineteenth century, and a roast hare was a large, strongly flavoured joint that few households finished at one sitting; Cassell's, like Mrs Beeton before it, treated the second appearance of a joint as a proper subject rather than an afterthought. The pairing of hare with port and cayenne follows the older English habit of dressing dark game with fortified wine and warm spice, the same logic that gives us jugged hare and the redcurrant jelly served alongside. The costing in pence is characteristic of the book's audience: middle-class households running on a fixed housekeeping allowance, for whom a dish that turned yesterday's bones and scraps into a hot supper for three at fourpence had obvious appeal.