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RABBIT, MINCED (another way)
Take the meat from the remains of a cold cooked rabbit, free it from skin and sinew, mince finely, and put it aside. Break the bones into small pieces, and put them into a saucepan with half a pound of veal cut into small squares, a slice of lean ham, a large spoonful of bacon-fat or lard, and a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Move them about over the fire for a minute or two, dredge flour thickly over them, and pour upon them as much milk as will cover them. Let them simmer gently for an hour, stirring them at intervals. Strain the liquor, boil it till it is quite thick, and keep stirring to prevent it burning. Put the minced meat into the sauce, let it get quite hot without boiling, and serve immediately. Time, an hour and a half. Probable cost, 10d., exclusive of the cold meat. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian way of stretching leftover rabbit: the carcass and a little veal build a thick milk gravy, and the picked meat is only warmed through in it at the end.
- The hingeOnce the minced rabbit goes into the sauce it must not boil. Already-cooked rabbit is lean and tightens instantly; hold the pan just below a simmer for two or three minutes and serve.
- Bones and vealThe half pound of veal is there largely for gelatine and body rather than for a pronounced flavour of its own. A veal knuckle or a few chunks of veal shoulder both work; if veal is hard to find, pork shoulder will stand in, though it gives less set.
- Milk, not stockSimmering bones in milk for an hour will look alarming and may curdle slightly. Keep the heat very low and uncovered, and strain through a fine sieve or muslin. The starch from the dredged flour holds it together.
- Dredge flour thicklyPerhaps 2 to 3 tablespoons over the meat and bones; the recipe gives no measure. Note that the milk goes on at once, so the flour is not cooked out first as it would be in a true roux.
- Reducing the strained liquorBoiling it "till it is quite thick" means a coating consistency, about the density of a thick bechamel. Stir constantly with a flat-ended spoon; the milk solids scorch quickly.
- Costs and quantitiesThe 10d. is the price of the added ingredients only, the cold rabbit excepted, as the recipe states. Assume the flesh from one cooked rabbit, perhaps 12 oz to 1 lb of picked meat, which with the sauce would be stretched across the stated four or five persons.
- ServingThe recipe gives no accompaniment. Minces of this kind were commonly sent up with a border of mashed potato or sippets of fried bread; buttered toast is the practical modern version, since the mince is soft and needs a foil.
- TimingThe stated hour and a half appears to cover the cooking; whether the picking and mincing of the rabbit is included is not said, so allow extra. Mince by hand with a knife rather than in a processor, which turns cooked rabbit to paste.
Rabbit was often said to be among the cheapest meats in Britain for much of the nineteenth century, wild or hutch-raised, and Cassell's gives it dozens of entries because it was the meat a modest household actually ate. Recipes like this belong to the enormous Victorian literature of remains and rechauffes, the frugal art of turning yesterday's roast into today's second dish without letting it look like leftovers. The technique of simmering broken bones with fresh veal to build a gelatinous base is standard for the period; veal was valued less for taste than for the set it gave a sauce, a function now generally filled by commercial stock. Making that base with milk instead of water is meant to bring the dish to table pale and delicate rather than brown, and Victorian cookery drew a firm line between the two.