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HARE (en Daube)
Cut off the head of a hare, and truss it securely. Line a braising-pan with slices of bacon, place the hare on it, and with it a calf's foot, broken into small pieces, a large onion with four cloves stuck in it, a large bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, two sliced carrots, and a quarter of a pint of good stock. Dredge a little pepper over the meat, cover it with slices of bacon, lay three or four folds of buttered paper over the bacon, and simmer slowly for four hours. Strain the gravy, boil it till it will jelly, pour it over the meat, and serve cold. Probable cost of hare, 3s. 6d. to 6s. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A cold jellied braise of the old French daube type, set with the natural gelatine of a calf's foot rather than with packet gelatine. Nothing here is difficult, but the recipe assumes a butcher's shop and a slow coal range.
- The hinge: the jelly must set on its ownEverything depends on the calf's foot and the long, bare simmer that draws collagen out of it. Reducing the strained gravy until a spoonful chills to a firm wobble on a cold saucer is the test; if it stays syrupy, keep reducing rather than adding water back.
- Sourcing the hareWild hare comes from game dealers and some online butchers, skinned or in the fur, commonly somewhere around 5-8 lb. A hare is darker, leaner and considerably stronger in flavour than rabbit; two rabbits will fill the pot but give a much milder, paler daube.
- Calf's footOrder it in advance, or use split veal knuckle, a pig's trotter or two. It contributes little flavour, mainly body. Powdered gelatine will set the dish, but you lose the natural body the long simmer produces.
- Quarter of a pint of stockFive imperial fluid ounces, a little under two-thirds of a US cup. It looks like too little; it is correct. The bacon, the foot and the hare itself release a great deal of liquid, and a flooded pot gives weak jelly.
- The buttered paperThree or four folds of buttered paper under the lid is a cartouche, holding steam against the meat and stopping the top layer of bacon from drying. Baking parchment does the same job; a tight-fitting lid alone leaves more headspace and more evaporation.
- Four hours at what heat"Simmer slowly" here means barely trembling. The recipe gives no oven and no temperature; a very low oven will hold a bare simmer more steadily than a burner. Check at three hours, since a young hare will be tender sooner than an old one.
- SeasoningOnly pepper is called for because the bacon of the period was heavily salted. Modern bacon is not, so taste the strained gravy before you reduce it and salt at that point, remembering that reduction concentrates whatever is already there.
- ServingChill overnight in the dish so the jelly sets around the meat. Serve cold in slices with pickles, mustard or a sharp salad, for six to eight. The "probable cost" in shillings dates the entry rather than helps with it.
A daube is a French braise cooked slowly in a covered pot, and in English cookery books the technique was often turned to the production of cold, jellied dishes for buffets and cold suppers, where a dish that could be made a day ahead and cut at the table was worth more than one that had to be served hot; hot daubes appear too. Hare was a common enough item in Victorian kitchens, sold by poulterers and game dealers through the autumn and winter, and a large one was too much for one meal, so cold treatments like this one earned their place. The calf's foot is one of the period's setting agents, though commercial leaf and powdered gelatines and isinglass were also widely used in British kitchens by this date. Cassell's gives the price in shillings, as it does throughout, which tells you the book was written for a household weighing the cost of a dish against the number it would feed.