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Rabbit, Ragout Of
Dissolve two ounces of butter in a saucepan, and in this fry three moderate-sized onions cut into slices. Lift these out as they brown, mix three tea-spoonfuls of flour smoothly with the butter, and moisten the mixture very gradually with as much stock or water as will make it of the consistency of thick cream. Skin, empty, and wash a young rabbit. Cut it into small neat joints, lay these in the sauce with five or six rashers of bacon, a bay-leaf, a slice of lemon, and a little pepper and salt. Simmer all gently together till the rabbit is tender. Lay the pieces on a dish, strain the sauce over them, and serve very hot. A glassful of wine may be added to the sauce or not. Time, from an hour and a half to two hours to simmer the rabbit. Probable cost, 3s., exclusive of wine. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A straightforward brown fricassee that depends on heat control more than anything else: rabbit held at a bare simmer stays succulent, while a rolling boil turns the leg meat stringy and dry within minutes.
- Butter and flourTwo ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons; three teaspoonfuls of flour is about a tablespoon. That is a very loose roux for the amount of liquid, so the sauce will be light rather than gravy-thick — add flour by the half-teaspoon if you want more body.
- How much stockNo quantity is given; the recipe sets it by feel. Pour the stock or water in a little at a time so the flour does not lump, stopping at the "thick cream" consistency described, and top up as needed once the joints are in. The rabbit will release liquid as it cooks.
- The onionsThey are lifted out as they brown and the recipe never puts them back. Return them to the pan with the rabbit if you like; they collapse into the sauce and will be caught when it is strained at the end.
- TimingAn hour and a half to two hours suits an older or wild rabbit. Farmed rabbit at 2 to 2½ lb is tender in 45 to 60 minutes, and the loin pieces sooner than the hind legs — pull them out early and return them to warm through.
- Jointing"Small neat joints" means two forelegs, two hind legs, and the saddle cut across into two or three pieces, with the ribcage either included or saved for stock. Modern rabbit is usually sold already jointed.
- The baconVictorian bacon was generally fatter and more heavily salted than most supermarket bacon, and much of it was unsmoked ("green"), though smoked was sold too. Thick-cut unsmoked streaky suits the dish; hold back on salt until the end, since the bacon and the reduced stock both bring their own.
- The wineA Victorian wineglassful is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz (¼ cup), though the term was used loosely and some sources allow more. A dry white or a light red works; the recipe simply says it may be added to the sauce.
- Yield and costFour to five servings, as stated. The "3s." is the household price in shillings at the time of publication, covering the whole dish and exclusive of the wine; it has no bearing on anything now.
Ragout comes from the French ragoûter, to revive the appetite, and by the nineteenth century it had settled in English kitchens to mean any meat cut small and stewed in its own thickened sauce — the workhorse method for anything tougher than a roasting joint. Rabbit was one of the cheapest meats available to a Victorian household: wild rabbit came in by the cartload from the countryside, and hutch-reared rabbits were kept in back yards well into the twentieth century. The bacon, bay leaf and slice of lemon are the standard English trio for cutting the dryness of lean rabbit, and the airy dismissal of the wine — "may be added to the sauce or not" — is typical of a book written for cooks who might or might not have a bottle in the house. The entry itself is headed alphabetically, "Rabbit, Ragout Of", in the manner of a dictionary.