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Rabbit, Civet Of
Wash, dry, and cut up a moderate-sized rabbit into neat pieces. Cut up also a quarter of a pound of bacon into neat rashers. Fry the bacon gently, take it up, and fry the rabbit in the same fat. Take up the rabbit, put back the bacon, and add an onion, a shallot, a small carrot, a small turnip, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, and a bay-leaf. Turn all over in the fat for two or three minutes, put back the pieces of rabbit, and add a dozen button mushrooms and a pint of stock. Season with pepper and salt, and put with it a table-spoonful of flour mixed smoothly with water. Stir till it boils, and simmer for half an hour, or till the rabbit is tender. Add a glass of claret and a lump of sugar. Put the pieces of rabbit on a dish, pour the sauce over, and serve. Probable cost, 2s. 6d.
A straightforward French braise set down in Victorian shorthand, where a competent cook was assumed to know how long a rabbit takes and how much wine is in a glass. The main adjustments are timing and the thickening.
- Wild or farmed rabbitHalf an hour will only tenderise a young farmed rabbit of about 2-2.5 lb; expect 45-60 minutes for that, and 1.5 hours or more for a wild one, which is leaner and far tougher. Judge by the meat pulling from the bone rather than the clock.
- A pint of stockAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, about 2.5 US cups. Use a light chicken or veal stock; a heavy beef stock will bury the rabbit.
- A glass of claretClaret is dry red Bordeaux. Victorian recipe 'glasses' were not standardised, but a wineglassful was commonly reckoned at around 2 to 2.5 fl oz. Added at the end as written it tastes raw, so let it simmer two or three minutes before serving.
- The lump of sugarOne lump is about a teaspoon. It is there to round off the acidity of the wine, not to sweeten the dish, so add it after the claret and taste.
- ThickeningA tablespoon of flour slaked with water into a pint of stock gives a thin, slightly floury sauce. Better to lift out the meat at the end and either reduce the liquid hard or whisk in a beurre manie of equal butter and flour.
- The baconUse unsmoked streaky bacon or lardons cut thick. Modern thin-sliced smoked rashers render away to nothing and push the dish towards smoke rather than pork.
- AromaticsThe parsley, thyme and bay are a bouquet garni in all but name; tie them so they can be fished out. The carrot and turnip are chiefly there for flavour, and the recipe gives no instruction about removing them -- the sauce is simply poured over the rabbit.
- MushroomsA dozen buttons simmered from the start will soften considerably, and will break down over the longer cooking a wild rabbit needs. Add them for the last 15 minutes if you want them whole and firm.
- YieldOne moderate rabbit with bacon and vegetables serves three, or four with plenty of potatoes or bread to catch the sauce.
Civet comes from the Old French cive, an onion or chive (ultimately Latin cepa), and the name marks the dish as one built on a base of onions and shallots rather than on any particular animal. In classic French cookery a civet is made with hare or rabbit, though venison and boar are equally classic, and finished with the animal's blood, which thickens the sauce and darkens it; Cassell's version quietly substitutes a flour-and-water liaison. Rabbit was cheap and everywhere in late nineteenth-century Britain, wild ones from the warrens and tame ones from backyard hutches, which is why a dictionary of cookery could quote a probable cost of half a crown for a dish that also called for claret and button mushrooms.