Home › The Principles of Cookery › Hare Ragout
Hare Ragout
Divide the hare into neat joints. Put the best parts--namely, the back, shoulders, and legs--into a deep dish; pour 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 gravy 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, three-quarters of an hour to stew the hare. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. to 6s. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A two-day braise: the prime joints marinate in vinegar while a stock is built from the carcass and offal, defatted cold, then used to stew the meat. The method is sound; the timings and the assumption of a hanging larder are what need adjusting.
- Marinate coldTwenty-four hours in vinegar was done in a cool larder or game safe. Do it in the refrigerator, in a non-reactive dish (glass or stainless, never bare aluminium or cast iron), turning the joints once.
- The stewing time is too shortThree-quarters of an hour will not tenderise a wild hare. Legs and shoulders of an adult animal want 2 to 3 hours at a bare simmer; the saddle is more tender and can be added for the last 45 minutes or cooked separately. Cook until the meat pulls from the bone, not by the clock.
- Sourcing the hareA whole hare with head, heart and liver comes from a game dealer or a butcher who handles game, usually to order and often frozen. A 5-6 lb hare serves six to eight as stated. Rabbit can stand in but is much milder and leaner, and will cook in half the time.
- MeasuresAn imperial quart is 40 fl oz, about 5 US cups. Two ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons. A quarter pound of bacon is 4 oz; use a slab or thick-cut streaky rather than thin breakfast rashers. A wine glass in cookery books of this period is usually reckoned at around 2 fl oz (about 1/4 cup), though the measure was not standardised.
- "Bunch of herbs"A bouquet garni: parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf tied with string, or wrapped in a leek leaf. Allspice here means four whole berries, not ground.
- Browning the roux"Moderate fire" over three sliced onions and 3 teaspoons of flour means a slow, patient brown -- 15 to 20 minutes over medium-low. The colour of the onions and flour is the colour of the finished sauce, and burnt flour cannot be rescued.
- Chilling the gravyRefrigerating the strained stock overnight so the fat lifts off in one disc is still the cleanest way to defat a game sauce. As written the marinade and the stock can run concurrently, so the dish spans two days: marinate and make the stock on the first, stew on the second.
- Forcemeat ballsThe book assumes you know these: breadcrumbs, suet or butter, chopped bacon or the hare's liver, lemon zest, thyme and egg to bind, rolled small and fried or poached in the sauce. They are not optional garnish in the Victorian sense -- they carry the seasoning.
- Cost3s. 6d. to 6s. is the shillings-and-pence of the period, before decimalisation.
Cassell's places this among the classic French treatments of game: the vinegar marinade, the browned onion roux, the stock built from the carcass and cleared of fat overnight all belong to the civet and ragoût tradition that English cookery writers drew on in the nineteenth century. The acid soak was held to serve two purposes in a house that hung its game -- it tempered the strong, sometimes musky flavour of a mature hare and was thought to help soften muscle that had done a great deal of work. Note what the recipe does not do: unlike a true civet, it does not thicken with the blood, though the liver and heart go into the stock. Hare was sold in fur and undrawn, and a book aimed at middle-class households could reasonably assume a cook who could joint one. The port at the end is the English signature, and the phrasing -- "always an improvement... but this may be added or not" -- is a small piece of editorial diplomacy toward readers who kept no wine in the house.