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Hare, Jugged
A hare nicely jugged is to be preferred to one cooked in any other way. Cut the hare into pieces, not one of which is larger than an egg Fry these in a little butter till they are lightly browned, drain them, and put them at once into a wide-mouthed stone jar, and pour upon them a large glassful of port or good claret or Burgundy. The dregs of one or two bottles, if taken care of, will answer excellently for the purpose. Tie a cloth securely over the mouth of the jar, and leave the pieces of meat in the wine for about twenty minutes. Untie the jar, and pour over the meat a little good brown gravy, strongly flavoured with onion. Add an inch of stick cinnamon, six cloves, two bay leaves, the juice of half a lemon, and a tablespoonful of the forcemeat sprinkled lightly over all. Cover the jar again, and very closely put it up to its neck in a saucepan of boiling water, and keep the water boiling round it for about an hour and a half. If more convenient the jar can be placed in the oven, in a shallow dripping-tin, filled with boiling water. When this is done, it will need to be baked from two hours and a half to three hours, and care must be taken to keep up the supply of boiling water round it. Make up some good hare forcemeat (see HARE, FORCEMEAT FOR) into small balls the size of marbles, fry these in hot fat, and put them into the jar a minute or two before it is taken out of the oven. This dish will be much improved, and will go further if a pound of steak is added, cut into very thin slices, two inches long by an inch and a half broad. These slices should have a little forcemeat spread upon each one, then be rolled up, fastened with a small skewer, and fried and stewed with the hare. The gravy which is used for jugged hare will be better if thickened with arrowroot rather than with brown thickening. Serve red currant jelly with this dish. Excellent hare soup may be made of the remains of jugged hare prepared in this way (see HARE, ROAST, COLD). Probable cost, supposing the hare to cost 3s. 6d., and with one pound of beef, 6s.
A bain-marie stew, essentially: the meat cooks sealed in a jar standing in boiling water, which keeps it below a rolling simmer and prevents the lean flesh from shredding. That gentle, indirect heat is the whole point of the method and the thing to preserve if you swap vessels.
- The jar, and what to use insteadA wide-mouthed stone jar with a cloth tied over it is a sealed vessel inside a water bath. A heavy lidded casserole or Dutch oven, lid sealed with foil, standing in a roasting tin of boiling water, does the same job. Keep the water level topped up to the neck of the vessel throughout.
- Oven temperatureThe book gives none, because the jar's contents cannot exceed boiling point. An oven of 300-325F keeps the surrounding water at a steady simmer for the two and a half to three hours specified without boiling it dry too fast.
- "A large glassful" of wineGenuinely imprecise in Victorian usage; a wine glass of the period ran roughly 2 to 4 fl oz, and "large" suggests the upper end. Around half a cup for one hare is consistent with the rest of the liquid. Ignore the advice about bottle dregs: opened wine that has stood for days turns sharp and vinegary.
- Sourcing the hareHare is a game-dealer or online-butcher item, sold in season; it may come in the fur or ready-skinned, so check when ordering. A whole one dresses out at roughly 5-7 lb. Rabbit substitutes acceptably for the technique but is far milder and much leaner, and will cook considerably faster.
- ForcemeatThe cross-referenced hare forcemeat is not reproduced here; forcemeats of this type generally combine the liver with breadcrumbs, bound with suet or butter and seasoned with herbs and lemon. Any liver-based game stuffing works. The balls are fried separately and added at the very end so they hold their shape.
- The beef rollsThin slices of steak spread with forcemeat, rolled and skewered, are what English cookery calls beef olives. Cocktail sticks replace the small skewers; remove them before serving.
- ThickeningArrowroot is preferred here for good reason: it thickens clear and glossy and, unlike a flour-based brown thickening, will not turn cloudy or taste raw in a sauce that gets no hard boil. Slake it in cold liquid and stir it in at the end, off the boil, or it will thin again.
- Cinnamon and clovesAn inch of stick cinnamon and six cloves are assertive in a modern palate's terms. Add them whole as directed and fish them out before serving rather than grinding them in.
- Yield and serviceA hare with the pound of beef serves six to eight generously. Redcurrant jelly is not optional garnish but the acid-sweet counterweight the dish is built around; mashed or forcemeat-stuffed potatoes take the sauce well.
Jugging is a long-established English stewing method, and the name refers to the vessel: the meat went into an earthenware jug or jar, sealed, and stood in a pan of water so that nothing escaped and nothing scorched. It suited hare especially well, since the meat is dark, dry and strongly flavoured, and the closed vessel kept in both the wine and the aroma. Many older versions bound the sauce with the hare's own blood, reserved when the animal was paunched, which gave the dish its reputation for richness and for turning nearly black; this version calls for brown gravy and arrowroot instead. The costing at the end — 6s. for the finished dish, supposing the hare at 3s. 6d. plus a pound of beef — is the sort of detail that marks this book as a manual for a household budgeting a kitchen, not a cook improvising in one.