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Rabbit Soup, Superior

Skin and empty two rabbits, and let them lie in lukewarm water for an hour. Drain them, and put them into a stewpan with two quarts of white stock made from veal bones. Let them simmer gently until they are quite tender. Lift them out, and pick all the best meat from the bones. Bruise the latter, and put them back into the broth with two carrots, two onions, three or four sticks of celery, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, a blade of mace, a dozen peppercorns, and a little salt. Let all simmer gently for three hours. At the end of that time, strain the liquor, and let it stand to settle, so that it may be poured off free from sediment. Meantime mince the meat, and pound it till it is perfectly smooth, cover it, and put it aside. When the broth is cold, pour off the clear liquor free from sediment, and boil it. Put the pounded meat into a basin, moisten it very gradually with the warm broth, and rub the paste well with the back of a wooden spoon that it may be free from lumps. Add this thickening to the broth, season pleasantly with additional salt and cayenne, and pass it through a sieve. Put it into a clean saucepan, and when it boils stir into it three-quarters of a pint of cream which has been mixed with a table-spoonful of good arrowroot. Let the soup boil up again, and serve very hot. Sippets of toast dipped in cream and fried may be served with the soup. Time, about three-quarters of an hour to an hour and a quarter to boil the rabbits; three hours to boil the liquor. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. per pint. Sufficient for nine or ten persons.