Home › The Principles of Cookery › Rabbit, Larded
Rabbit, Larded
Skin, empty, and wash a fat young rabbit, cut off its head, and divide the body into four equal parts. Lard the fleshy part of each portion with thin strips of fat bacon, fry the quarters in hot fat till they are lightly browned, and lay them aside. Put about a pint and a half of nicely-flavoured and seasoned stock into a saucepan, thicken with a dessert-spoonful of brown thickening, and let it simmer gently until it is smooth and of the consistency of cream. Stir into it a glassful of sherry of Madeira, add the rabbit, and let it remain until it is thoroughly hot without boiling. Put the meat on a hot dish, pour the gravy over it, and garnish with cut lemon and parsley. Time, half an hour, exclusive of the time required for making the stock. Probable cost, 2s. 6d., without the wine. Sufficient for three or four persons.
RABBIT, MARBLED (to be eaten cold--suitable for breakfast, luncheon, or supper).
Take a couple of fine rabbits; skin, empty, and wash them; take out the livers and kidneys, and fry them in plenty of hot fat till they are tender and darkly coloured, then lay them aside. Put the rabbits into boiling water, and let them remain in it for five minutes. This is to blanch them. Take them up, drain them, put them into a stewpan, pour over them as much cold water as will cover them, and add an onion stuck with four cloves, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, and a little pepper and salt. Let them simmer gently till tender, and carefully skim the broth. Cut off the heads and necks of the rabbits, lift the flesh from the bones in large neat pieces, and lay these aside. Scrape off the remainder of the meat from the bones, take care of it, and put all the bones into a clean saucepan with the rabbit broth and half an ounce of gelatine which has been soaked for an hour in cold water. Put into this liquor a small portion of ham or bacon, and let it simmer till done enough, then take it out, and let the gravy simmer till it is reduced to a pint. Strain through a jelly-bag, carefully clear it from fat, and if necessary clarify it with white of egg, and season it well. Mince the scrapings of rabbit flesh with an equal quantity of fat bacon, add the weight of the meat in finely-grated bread-crumbs, season the mixture with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and powdered herbs, bind it together with egg, and form it into balls the size of a small nutmeg. Throw these into boiling water till they are set--they will take about ten minutes. Dip a deep mould into cold water, pour into this a small portion of the gravy just before it jellies, and let it flow round and round until it begins to set. Arrange the pieces of rabbit in this, together with the ham or bacon cut into strips, the liver and kidney sliced, the forcemeat balls, and one or two hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters. Be careful not to pack the ingredients closely, but to leave room for the jelly to flow in amongst them, and also in placing the pieces to contrast the colours, that the mould may look pretty when it is turned out. Pour the rest of the jelly over all, and set the mould in a cool place. When wanted, turn it upon a dish, and it is ready for serving. Time, four or five hours. Probable cost of rabbits, 7d. to 9d. per pound. Sufficient for a large dish.
Two rabbit dishes run together in the original: a quick larded sauté and a cold jellied mould for the sideboard. Both assume a young, tender rabbit and a cook with stock already made.
- The rabbit itselfA "fat young rabbit" means a tender one, and the half-hour timing in the first recipe assumes it. Wild rabbit is leaner and much tougher, and that timing will leave the hind legs sinewy; those want a genuine braise of 45-60 minutes rather than a warm-through in sauce.
- LardingThreading strips of fat bacon through lean flesh with a larding needle is the whole point of the dish, since rabbit carries almost no internal fat. Without a larding needle, bard instead: wrap each joint in thin bacon or pancetta and tie it, which achieves nearly the same basting effect.
- Brown thickeningA Victorian standby: flour cooked in butter or dripping until it is nut-brown, kept in a jar and used by the spoonful. A dessert-spoonful is 2 teaspoons. Substitute a dark roux, or whisk in beurre manié and let the sauce reduce longer for colour.
- Quantities in the first recipeA pint and a half imperial is 30 fl oz, roughly 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 US cups of stock, which reduces to a generous sauce. "A glassful" of sherry or Madeira is genuinely vague; the conventional Victorian wineglass measure was around 2 to 2.5 fl oz, so start at 1/4 cup and taste.
- Do not boil the wine sauceThe rabbit is brought through "thoroughly hot without boiling"; the original gives no reason, though boiling would both toughen the meat and drive off the aroma of the fortified wine. Hold the pan just below a simmer. Rabbit should still reach 160F/71C at the thickest part of the leg.
- The gelatine in the marbled rabbitHalf an ounce is about 14 g of leaf or powdered gelatine to a pint (20 fl oz) of reduced stock. That is a firm set, deliberately so, since the mould has to be turned out and sliced. Modern gelatine is reliably standardised where Victorian sorts varied, so 12 g is likely ample; a stock made from the bones will contribute its own body.
- ClarifyingThe whisked egg white raft is still the reliable method for a clear aspic, but strain twice through a scalded cloth first and skim the fat thoroughly while the stock is hot. Any fat left behind will bloom as white streaks in the set jelly.
- Setting and keeping"A cool place" meant a larder; use the refrigerator, allowing four hours or overnight. A cooked jellied mould of this kind keeps two or three days chilled and should be brought out only shortly before serving, not left standing on a warm sideboard.
- YieldThe larded rabbit serves three or four. The marbled rabbit uses two rabbits and is described only as "sufficient for a large dish" -- perhaps eight to ten portions as part of a cold table.
Cassell's quotes rabbit at 7d. to 9d. a pound, and it appears throughout the book in many guises because it was food for households watching every shilling. Both techniques here follow French practice adapted to English economy: larding compensates for the animal's near-total lack of fat, and the "marbled" mould, set in aspic with forcemeat balls and hard-boiled egg arranged for contrast, belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of cold moulded dishes made to be turned out whole and carved at breakfast, luncheon or supper. The instruction to space the pieces so the jelly flows between them, and to contrast the colours, is a reminder that these dishes were judged on their cut surface as much as their flavour. Domestic gelatine, sold in sheets and packets from around the middle of the century, is what made such a mould practical in an ordinary kitchen rather than only in a professional one with calf's foot on permanent standby.