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HARE PASTY (a German recipe)
Skin the hare, and cut it into joints or half-joints; lard these with thin strips of bacon, and lay them in a deep dish, with an onion, finely minced, twenty juniper berries, a bayleaf, a dozen peppercorns, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar. Let them remain in this marinade twelve hours, turning and basting them frequently. Drain the pieces of hare, and put them into a stewpan with three ounces of butter. Cover the pan closely, and let them steam until tender. Take them out, and put into the stewpan half the marinade and half a pint of good, nicely-seasoned gravy. Boil the liver, mince it finely, and make a forcemeat by mixing with it a quarter of a pound of bacon, half a pound of pork, four ounces of finely-grated bread-crumbs, a quarter of a nutmeg, grated, some salt and pepper, a tea-spoonful of minced parsley, half as much powdered thyme, and two well-beaten eggs. Stir this over a gentle fire until it is sufficiently cooked. Spread half the forcemeat on the bottom of a baking-dish, put the pieces of hare upon it, with the rest of the forcemeat between them. Pour in a quarter of a pint of the gravy, and lay two or three thin slices of bacon over the whole. Cover the dish with a good crust, and bake in a moderate oven for an hour and a half. Boil the gravy down a little, and pour it through a hole in the lid. This pasty may be eaten either hot or cold. Probable cost of hare, 3s. 6d. to 6s. Sufficient for eight or nine persons.
A Victorian raised-pie treatment of hare, part-stewed before it ever meets the pastry. The recipe assumes a butcher who will sell you a whole hare with its liver, and a cook who knows what "a good crust" means; both need translating.
- The hinge: the hare is cooked twiceThe jointed pieces are steamed in butter until tender before they go under the crust, and the oven time is for the pastry, not the meat. Hare is a hard-worked muscle; expect 45 to 75 minutes of gentle covered stewing, and check that a fork goes into the thigh without resistance. Skip this and 90 minutes at 350F will not save it.
- "A moderate oven"350F / 175C. If the crust is browning faster than the filling is heating, drop to 325F and tent the top with foil for the last half hour.
- Quarter of a pint, half a pintBritish imperial: a quarter pint is 5 fl oz, about two-thirds of a US cup; half a pint is 10 fl oz, or 1 1/4 US cups. The recipe uses a quarter pint of vinegar in the marinade and a quarter pint of gravy in the dish.
- Sourcing the hareWild European hare is seasonal and mostly sold through game dealers; a whole one runs 5-8 lb and is far darker and stronger than rabbit. Two farmed rabbits will fill the dish but cook faster and taste much milder, so lean harder on the juniper and the bacon.
- The liverFew hares now arrive with the pluck attached. If yours does not, an equal weight of chicken livers gives the forcemeat the same iron-rich backbone. The forcemeat is stirred over heat until cooked through before it lines the dish, which is why the pie needs only enough oven time to set the crust.
- Larding"Lard these with thin strips of bacon" means threading fat through the meat with a larding needle. Without one, wrap each joint in thin streaky bacon or pancetta and tie it; hare has almost no intramuscular fat and dries to string otherwise.
- "Good, nicely-seasoned gravy"Not pan drippings but a strong brown stock, reduced. A well-reduced veal or game stock, or beef stock cooked down by half, is the modern equivalent. It must be full-flavoured because half the acidic marinade goes in with it.
- The crust and the holeA firm shortcrust or hot-water paste, rolled thicker than you would for a fruit pie, since it has to hold reduced gravy poured in at the end. Cut the vent hole before baking and keep it open with a small funnel of foil; the finishing gravy sets to a jelly as the pie cools, which is what makes it good cold.
- YieldThe original claim of eight or nine is fair for a whole hare with a pound and more of forcemeat, served as a main course with something sharp alongside — pickled red cabbage or a fruit jelly would suit.
Cassell's flags this as German, and the marinade gives it away: juniper, bay, peppercorns and vinegar are the standard Beize in which German cooks steeped hare and venison, both to tenderise dark game and to hold it in the days before reliable cold storage. Hare was a staple of the British game season too, cheap enough at three and six to feed nine people, and the dish — meat filling a baking-dish under a thick crust, eaten hot or cold — belongs to a long tradition of pies built as much for keeping and travelling as for the table. The instruction to pour reduced gravy through a hole in the lid after baking is the same technique used in pork pies: the liquid fills the gaps left as the meat shrinks and sets to jelly, sealing the filling from air. That the book gives a price at all is a reminder of its audience, mistresses of households costing out a dinner for a known number of guests.