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RABBIT CAKE (a breakfast, luncheon, or supper dish)

Take the white meat from two young rabbits. Put the bones into a saucepan, cover them with cold water, add an onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a little pepper and salt, and let these ingredients stew gently until the gravy is strong and pleasantly flavoured. Strain, thicken with a little flour and butter, stir one or two spoonfuls of cream into the gravy, and let it boil until it is smooth and of the consistency of custard. Take the weight of the meat in fat bacon, cut this into small pieces, and melt these in a saucepan over a gentle fire. In two or three minutes put the pieces of rabbit into the pan with them, accompanied by a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, and a little pepper, and stir all with a wooden spoon until the meat is sufficiently cooked. Turn the contents of the saucepan into a mortar with half the quantity of panada (see PANADA), pound all together to a smooth paste, and rub this through a hair sieve. Moisten the forcemeat with a small quantity of the sauce made from the bones, and bind it together with the yolks of two or three eggs. Taste the forcemeat, to ascertain whether or not it is pleasantly flavoured, and, if further seasoning is required, pound the mixture again after it is added. A few mushrooms or truffles cut small may be added if liked. Butter two round moulds of different sizes, and press the forcemeat into these. Cover them, put them into a large pan containing boiling water three or four inches deep, and keep this boiling until the forcemeat is sufficiently cooked. Let it get cold. When wanted, turn the larger cake upon a dish, put the smaller cake on the top of it, and place a ring of clear aspic jelly on the top of all. Garnish the dish with aspic jelly cut into dice, and, if liked, place a border of rice round the cake. When prettily ornamented it is ready for serving. Time to boil the cakes, half an hour to an hour and a quarter, according to size. Probable cost of rabbits, 7d. to 9d. per pound. Sufficient for eight or nine persons.