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To Roast a Hare (Hares are in season)
Hares are in season from September to 1st March. Skin and paunch the hare, taking care not to break any of the intestines; wipe it well inside and out with a clean dry cloth; if there are any spots where blood has settled prick them with a knife and let the blood out. Take out the eyes, but leave the ears and the tail on.
Fill the hare with forcemeat, sew it up, and truss it firmly in the same way as a rabbit. Brush it all over with melted butter or fat, lay pieces of fat bacon over the back tied on with string in about three places, and roast before a clear brisk fire for from an hour and a half to two hours, according to size. Hares must be well basted from the first with either milk or butter and clarified fat; it is more mellow if butter or fat is used. If not well basted from the first to the last, the outside skin will be hard. Just at the last, dredge lightly with flour and baste with butter; serve with good brown gravy and red currant jelly.
A spit-roasting recipe from an era when a whole hare was ordinary butcher's stock. The method translates to an oven, but the choice of animal matters more than anything else here.
- Only a young hare will doRoasting whole suits a leveret or a first-season hare; an older animal roasted this way comes out dry and stringy no matter how well basted. Older hares belong in a jugged or braised dish. Judge age by the ears, which should tear easily, and by soft, easily broken jaw bones.
- Sourcing and preparationFew cooks now skin and paunch their own. Order the hare from a game dealer prepared and, if you want the traditional gravy, ask them to keep the blood. Hares are traditionally hung before dressing.
- "A clear brisk fire"Before an open fire the meat cooked by radiant heat while turning. In an oven, start at 425F for 15 minutes to set the outside, then drop to 350F. The recipe's hour and a half to two hours is a guide for a spit; in an oven judge by internal temperature rather than the clock, as timings will differ.
- Basting is the hingeThe recipe is emphatic and it is right: hare is extremely lean and the skin toughens if it dries. Baste every 10-15 minutes with butter, dripping or the milk mentioned. The bacon tied over the back is barding, and it should stay on until the last 15 minutes so the back can colour.
- DonenessCook to about 155-160F in the thickest part of the hind leg. The saddle will be done well before the legs, which is another reason many modern cooks joint a hare and cook the parts separately.
- ForcemeatThe stuffing is assumed knowledge in this book: breadcrumbs, shredded suet or butter, chopped bacon or the hare's liver, parsley, thyme, lemon zest, and egg to bind. Stuff loosely, and check that the centre of the forcemeat has reached 165F.
- Dredging with flourThe late flour-and-butter dredge is a froth or frothing, a traditional English roasting finish that gives a crisp, freckled crust. It works in the oven if you raise the heat back to 425F for the final five minutes.
- ServingA hare of this size feeds four to six. The brown gravy is traditionally enriched with the reserved blood, stirred in off the heat at the end so it thickens without curdling; redcurrant jelly is not optional in the period sense, it cuts the strong, iron-heavy meat.
Hare has long been a prestige roast in British kitchens, and the September to 1st March window quoted here reflects a mixture of custom and, at various times, law: hares breed through spring and summer, and shooting or selling them outside that window was avoided. That the recipe opens with skinning and paunching tells you the animal arrived in the fur. Tradition explains the details that look odd now: the ears are said to have been left on to identify the roast as hare rather than rabbit at table. The pairing with redcurrant jelly belongs to the same tradition that puts it beside venison and mutton, a sweet-sharp foil to dark, strongly flavoured meat, and its persistence in books like this one marks hare as game-table food, not everyday cooking.