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Rabbit, Spanish Way of Cooking

A stewpan or earthenware pipkin is taken, having a tightly-fitting cover, and of sufficient size to hold a couple of rabbits when cut up into small pieces; also four moderate-sized Spanish onions in thin slices. A layer of sliced onion is placed on the bottom of the pan; on it a layer of the pieces of rabbit previously seasoned with salt, pepper, and whatever other seasoning may be desired. This is covered with a second layer of onion, then rabbit, and so on alternately, until the whole of the rabbit is used up. A few thin slices of raw bacon or ham are put over the last layer of rabbit, and all the remaining pieces of onion are placed on the top. The cover is then put on, and the whole stewed at a moderate heat for two hours. A slack oven, a hot plate, or hot hearth, answers admirably. It is needless to say that, as no water may be added, if the pan is placed over the fire the meat is burned and spoiled. At the end of two hours let it be turned out into a dish, and served up immediately, when it will be found to be a tender, succulent, gravy-teeming dish, far different from the insipid, dry, stringy, boiled rabbit and onion sauce of the ordinary style. English onions answer very well; and should the gravy (of which a considerable quantity is produced), require to be slightly thickened, a tea-spoonful of flour should be added to the seasoning which is rubbed over the pieces of rabbit.