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Jugged Hare
1 hare. 1 carrot. 1 onion. 1 turnip. 2 celery stalks. 1 bay leaf. 1 blade mace. Small bunch parsley Small piece lemon rind 3 allspices 1 clove I bay leaf Salt and pepper Stock 1 tablespoonful flour I blade mace 4 tablespoonfuls water 1 tablespoonful red currant jelly 1 tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoonful mushroom ketchup 1 tablespoonful lemon juice 2 wineglassfuls port wine 12 small forcemeat balls Skin the hare after taking out the inside, wipe the hare thoroughly, but do not wash it, cut it into neat joints, dust a little flour over them, and fry them in smoking hot fat till browned. Drain them and put them into an earthenware jar with the vegetables cut into small pieces, the bay leaf, lemon rind, mace, clove, allspices, salt and pepper; fill up the jar with boiling stock, let it simmer for two or three hours, according to the size of the hare; when cooked, take out the pieces of hare, warm them to prevent their getting dry; mix the flour with the water, add it to the blood and the pounded liver, thicken the gravy with it, stir in the jelly, sauce, ketchup, lemon juice, and wine, strain on to the hare in a casserole, put in the forcemeat balls that have been fried in smoking hot fat; heat and serve. 6 quails
A classic jugged hare, printed here with a mangled ingredient list — the hare itself, the vegetables, the blood and the liver all appear in the method but not in the list, and the stray "6 quails" at the end is the heading of the next recipe. Read the method as the true ingredient list.
- The hinge: never let the sauce boilOnce the blood and pounded liver go in, the gravy must be brought only to a bare steam. Blood proteins set at around 160F and above that they seize into brown grains, turning a glossy sauce grainy and grey.
- Sourcing the hare and its bloodA hare must be ordered from a game dealer or butcher, hung and unpaunched, with the blood saved in the body cavity. Ask for the blood and liver separately; a spoonful of vinegar stirred into the blood keeps it from clotting before you need it. A dressed hare runs 5-7 lb and serves six to eight.
- "Do not wash it"Wiping rather than rinsing was the standard instruction of the period; the reasons usually given are that water waterlogs dark game and makes the flour coating slide off. Wipe with a damp cloth, then dry thoroughly before flouring or the meat will steam instead of browning.
- WineglassfulIn British cookery books of this period a wineglass is about 2 fl oz, so two wineglassfuls of port is roughly half a cup. Some authors use 4 fl oz; the larger reading is not wrong here, only richer.
- Whole spices"3 allspices" means three whole allspice berries, not ground. A blade of mace is one strip of the lacy covering of a nutmeg — about a quarter teaspoon of ground mace if you cannot find blades, added later since ground spice goes bitter over three hours.
- Mushroom ketchupA thin, dark, salty mushroom-and-spice liquor, not the tomato sauce the word now means. It is still sold in Britain; otherwise a tablespoon of mushroom soy or a strong reduction of dried mushroom soaking liquor with a pinch of salt gets close.
- The jar and the heatIn the older form of jugging the sealed earthenware jar stood in a pan of simmering water, which is where the name comes from; this version instead fills the jar with boiling stock and simmers it directly. A heavy lidded casserole in a low oven does the same job over the two to three hours; the meat should be pulling from the bone but not shredding.
- Forcemeat ballsNone are specified. The standard of the period is breadcrumbs, shredded suet, chopped parsley, lemon zest, thyme and a beaten egg, rolled walnut-sized and fried. Twelve small ones for a whole hare. Add them at the end so they do not disintegrate.
- Redcurrant jellyNot optional garnish but part of the balance — the acid and sugar cut the iron-heavy richness of blood-thickened game gravy. Keep the extra jelly on the table.
Jugging is one of the oldest surviving English methods for hare: the jointed animal was sealed in a tall stoneware jug or jar, which was then stood in a pot of boiling water so the meat cooked in its own juices with almost no evaporation and no risk of scorching. Recipes for jugged hare appear in English cookery books from the eighteenth century onward, Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery among them — the same book to which the misquoted line "first catch your hare" is traditionally, and wrongly, attributed. Thickening the sauce with the animal's own blood and pounded liver puts the dish in the same family as the French civet, and both depend on a hare being sold whole and undrawn, which was ordinary in a game shop of the period and is now a special order. This recipe finishes by straining the gravy "on to the hare in a casserole," so the older jug-in-a-water-bath has here given way to a covered earthenware dish.