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Rabbit and Eel, Matelote Of
Take a plump young rabbit, a fine eel, and three or four slices of bacon. Skin, empty, and wash the rabbit, cut it into small joints, and if the head is to be used, split it in halves, and take out the eyes. Skin and empty the eel, and divide it into short lengths. Fry the rabbit and eel in hot fat, together with the bacon cut into dice, till all are brightly browned and half cooked; take them up, set them aside, and in the same fat fry half a dozen button onions or two moderate-sized onions sliced, and a dozen button mushrooms if these are to be had. When these also are browned, put them in a clean saucepan with the fried rabbit and eel, and mix as much flour with the hot fat as is required to make a smooth paste. Moisten this with stock or water to make gravy of the consistency of cream, put into this the fried meat, onions, and mushrooms, and add the liver and heart of the rabbit, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a little pepper and salt if required. Simmer all gently together till the rabbit is tender. When done enough, pile the rabbit in the centre of a dish, arrange the pieces of eel and the bacon round it, and keep the meat hot. Strain the gravy, put a glassful of wine into it, boil it down till it is smooth and thick, and pour it over the meat. Serve immediately. When mushrooms are not at hand, a tea-spoonful of anchovy and a spoonful of bruised capers, or three or four gherkins chopped small, may be stirred into the sauce by way of a substitute. This recipe may be used for a rabbit alone, or an eel alone, as well as for the two together. Time, half an hour to simmer the rabbit, etc. Probable cost of rabbit, 7d. to 9d. per pound; eel, very variable. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A French matelote reworked for a Victorian English kitchen, and one of the rare stews that puts fur and fin in the same pot. Most of the work is in the browning; the rest is judgement about timing, since rabbit and eel cook at very different rates.
- Add the eel lateThis is the hinge. Rabbit needs 45 minutes or more of gentle simmering; eel lengths are tender in 15 to 20 and will shred to threads if given the full time. Brown the eel with the rabbit as directed, then hold it aside and return it to the pan for the last quarter of the cooking.
- The half hour is optimisticHalf an hour suits a young farmed rabbit. A wild or older animal wants 60 to 90 minutes at a bare simmer, and older still longer. Test the thigh joint rather than the clock.
- Sourcing the eelThe European eel is critically endangered and trade in it is restricted; if you want eel, buy farmed or from a fishmonger who can tell you where it came from, or use the recipe's own permission to make it with rabbit alone. Eel is sold skinned and cut on request, which saves an unpleasant job.
- Eel bloodRaw eel serum is irritant and mildly toxic, which is why eel is never eaten raw. Cooking destroys it entirely, so a thorough simmer settles the matter; just avoid tasting the raw fish or getting the blood in a cut.
- Quantities the original leaves vague"A glassful of wine" in this period is usually taken as about 2 fl oz, and red is the commonest choice for a matelote, though white and cider versions exist. "As much flour as is required" works out at roughly 2 tablespoons to the pan fat, enough to bring the gravy to the pouring-cream consistency the recipe asks for. A bunch of sweet herbs is a bouquet garni: parsley, thyme, bay.
- Anchovy and button onions"A tea-spoonful of anchovy" means anchovy essence or paste, not a whole fillet; anchovy paste or a mashed salted fillet does the same work. Button onions are small pickling or pearl onions, half a dozen of them, peeled whole so they hold their shape.
- The headThe recipe treats the head as optional, and split heads with the eyes removed do add body to the gravy. Modern rabbit is usually sold without it, and nothing in the dish depends on it.
- ServingSix to seven portions, as stated, which assumes a full rabbit and a good-sized eel alongside other dishes. As a single main course it is closer to four. Boiled potatoes or fried bread croutes, in the French manner, take up the sauce.
A matelote is a boatman's stew — from the French matelot, sailor — and in France the name is usually attached to freshwater fish cooked in wine with onions, bacon and mushrooms, eel being the classic choice along the Loire and the Seine. What Cassell's does here is characteristically English: it keeps the French method and garnish but doubles the dish with rabbit, so that a stew of the river becomes a stew of river and warren together. The combination made economic sense in the 1870s and 80s, when wild rabbit was cheap and eel, taken from tidal rivers and sold live in London, was priced so variably that the book calls it simply 'very variable'. The closing note that the recipe serves equally for rabbit alone or eel alone is the practical heart of it: this is a template for whatever the larder produced, dressed in the vocabulary of French cookery.