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Rabbit, Fried
Prepare the rabbit as in the preceding recipe. Put three table-spoonfuls of Lucca oil into a saucepan with an ounce of butter, and a little pepper, salt, and powdered spice. Let the butter melt, and put in the pieces of rabbit, place the saucepan upon a brisk fire, and stir its contents frequently till they are sufficiently cooked. Lift them out, stir an ounce of flour into the hot fat, and beat out with the back of a wooden spoon any lumps that there may be. Moisten this with half a pint of nicely-flavoured stock and a glassful of sherry, let it boil for five minutes, and strain it. Put it back into the saucepan with the rabbit, a shallot finely minced, and a table-spoonful of chopped parsley. When the sauce is on the point of boiling, lift out the pieces of rabbit, arrange them neatly on a dish, pour the sauce over them, and serve very hot. Time, twenty minutes to fry the rabbit. Probable cost, 2s. 3d., exclusive of the wine. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A sauté rather than a fry in the modern sense: the rabbit browns in fat, then finishes in a quick pan sauce built on the same fat. The whole thing runs about 35 minutes from start to table.
- Lucca oilLucca oil is olive oil from Tuscany, prized in Victorian kitchens as a fine table oil rather than a cooking or lamp grade. Any decent olive oil works; three tablespoons is right.
- "Prepare as in the preceding recipe"The cross-reference almost certainly covers cleaning and jointing the rabbit. Buy a rabbit already jointed, or cut it into forelegs, hind legs, saddle in two or three pieces, and ribs; pat everything dry so it browns rather than steams.
- A brisk fireMedium-high heat. Get real colour on the pieces before you lower it: the flour is stirred into the hot fat, so the browning in the pan carries into the sauce.
- Twenty minutes is for young rabbit onlyFarmed or young wild rabbit will be cooked through in roughly that time over brisk heat. An older wild rabbit stewed for twenty minutes will be tough; either braise it covered for 45 minutes to an hour in the stock before finishing the sauce, or buy young.
- Powdered spiceVictorian "spice" here most likely means a household mixed spice; the blends varied, typically some combination of nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice and cinnamon. A pinch of mace or nutmeg suits a savoury sauce best; avoid a heavily sweet pudding blend.
- A glassful of sherryA wine glass of the period is about 2 fl oz. Use a dry sherry (fino or amontillado); cream sherry will make the sauce cloying.
- Straining the sauceThe sauce is strained before the rabbit goes back in, which removes the browned fragments and any flour lumps. The shallot and parsley are added after straining, so mince them fine — they only get the minute or two it takes the sauce to come back to the boil.
- Don't let it boil at the endThe rabbit is already cooked when it returns to the pan. Bring the sauce just to the point of boiling and lift the pieces straight out, as the recipe says, or the lean meat dries and shreds.
- YieldThree to four as written. A 2½–3 lb rabbit is the right size.
Cassell's belongs to the era when rabbit was ordinary meat in Britain rather than a novelty — cheap, widely trapped, and sold by butchers and game dealers alike, which is why the book can quote a probable cost of 2s. 3d. and expect the reader to judge it. The method here is a domesticated French sauté: brown in fat, make a roux from the drippings, moisten with stock and wine, finish with shallot and parsley. The naming of "Lucca oil" rather than simply olive oil reflects the Victorian grocery trade, where oil was sold by port of origin and Lucca carried the reputation for edible, rather than lamp or industrial, quality.