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Hare, Stewed
Cut up a hare into neat joints. Put these into a stewpan with a pint and a half of good gravy, four ounces of raw ham cut into dice, four shallots, a sprig of parsley and thyme, the liver, finely minced, a blade of mace, half a dozen peppercorns, and two ounces of butter rolled in flour. Stew gently for an hour and a half. Strain the gravy. Put it, with the hare, back into the saucepan, add a glass of port or claret and a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, smoothly mixed with a dessert-spoonful of ground rice; add a little salt, if required; simmer a quarter of an hour longer, and serve as hot as possible; fried forcemeat balls may be placed round the dish or not. Probable cost, from 3s. 6d. to 6s. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A straightforward brown stew that depends almost entirely on the quality of the gravy it starts with. The Victorian cook had a stockpot going; the modern one needs to build that first.
- The gravy is the dish"A pint and a half of good gravy" means well-flavoured brown stock, not thickened pan gravy from a roast. That is 30 imperial fl oz, about 3½ cups of strong beef or game stock; a weak stock leaves the finished stew thin and flat, and nothing later in the recipe will rescue it.
- Sourcing the hareWild hare is sold by game dealers and some online butchers, often ready jointed; a whole one usually runs somewhere between 5 and 8 lb. An older wild hare is tough and benefits from a further half-hour or so of gentle stewing; a young one may be done in an hour. Rabbit substitutes but is milder and cooks faster.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié: 2 oz (4 tablespoons) softened butter kneaded with roughly the same volume of flour, added in small lumps. It thickens as the stew cooks rather than needing a roux made first.
- Shallots and maceFour shallots means four whole bulbs, peeled, not four cloves from a split head. A blade of mace is one piece of the lacy covering of nutmeg, worth seeking out for game; about a quarter teaspoon of ground mace stands in, though it clouds the sauce.
- The liverThe liver is minced raw into the pot and effectively disintegrates, enriching and darkening the gravy. If your hare arrives without it, chicken livers do the same job. Discard any liver that is spotted or discoloured.
- Mushroom ketchup and ground riceMushroom ketchup is a thin, dark, salty mushroom extract, still made commercially and quite unlike tomato ketchup; a splash of soy sauce plus a little Worcestershire is the nearest pantry equivalent. A dessert-spoonful is about 2 teaspoons; ground rice is a fine rice meal, and the recipe has it mixed smoothly into the ketchup before it goes in, so it does not lump.
- Wine at the endA "glass" in period recipes is variously reckoned at anything from about 2 to 5 fl oz; 3 fl oz is a fair working amount. It goes in only for the final quarter hour, which keeps more of the character of the port or claret than a long simmer would.
- Gentle means gentleHare is very lean and seizes up at a rolling boil. Keep the pan at a bare tremble, lid on, and the meat stays sliceable rather than stringy.
- YieldSix to eight, as stated, with potatoes or a plain starch. Redcurrant jelly is the customary accompaniment; the forcemeat balls are optional and can be fried while the gravy finishes.
Stewed hare belongs to the same English game tradition as jugged hare, and the two shade into each other: both rely on long slow cooking, port or claret, and mace, and jugged hare is classically thickened and darkened with the animal's blood. The difference is mainly the vessel, jugging being done in a covered jar set in a pan of water, while this version goes straight into the stewpan. Hare was a common item in nineteenth-century British kitchens because it was game the middle classes could actually buy, and Cassell's costing of 3s. 6d. to 6s. places it as a substantial but not extravagant dinner dish for six or eight. Mushroom ketchup, which appears here among the seasonings, was one of the great Victorian store-cupboard staples, a bottled umami long predating the dominance of the tomato version.