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Roast Hare
Skin and wipe hare, stuff and sew up carefully. Truss forelegs back and hind legs forward, and put in baking pan; fasten thin slices bacon over shoulders and back, put into quick oven and bake 1 1/2 hours, basting every 10 minutes with 1/4 cup butter in 1/2 cup boiling water. When one-half done dredge with flour and baste once more. Remove to hot platter and garnish with slices of lemon and water-cress.
Stuffing: Make moist stuffing as for chicken, using water in which giblets were boiled and working in minced giblet meat. Allow 1 lb. for each serving.
A whole roast hare of the old school: barded with bacon, basted hard, and served with a giblet stuffing. The instructions assume a young animal and a cook standing by the oven.
- The hinge: age of the animalOnly a young hare (a leveret, under about a year) will survive an hour and a half of dry roasting. An older animal has dense, sinewy muscle and needs moist heat; jugging or braising in stock and wine is the traditional treatment and the sensible one.
- Quick ovenIn period usage roughly 400-450F. At that heat a hare browns fast; one modern approach is to sear at 450F for about 15 minutes, then drop to 350F for the remainder so the legs cook through before the saddle dries.
- Basting is not optionalHare is extremely lean, with almost no intramuscular fat. The bacon barding and the ten-minute basting schedule with butter and water are the whole defence against a dry roast. Skip either and the meat turns to string.
- DonenessTake the thickest part of the hind leg to 160F. Wild game may carry parasites, and hare in particular can carry Francisella tularensis, so it should not be served pink or handled with cut hands when raw. Wear gloves when skinning.
- TrussingForelegs back and hind legs forward is the traditional set for hare and rabbit. Tie with butcher's twine to keep the carcass compact and the thin belly flaps from splaying and burning.
- GibletsFor a hare that means the heart, liver and kidneys, not a poultry-style giblet bag. Simmer them 15-20 minutes, chop fine, and use both the meat and the cooking liquid to moisten the bread stuffing. The liver is strong; a single hare liver is plenty for the quantity of stuffing described.
- Dredging with flourFlouring the half-cooked bird or beast and basting once more was standard practice for a crisp, freckled crust. Use a fine sieve or shaker so it lands evenly, and baste immediately or the flour scorches.
- YieldThe recipe's pound per serving is bone-in weight. A whole hare may run roughly 5-8 lb dressed, which at that rate is five to eight servings, with the stuffing to stretch it.
- SubstitutionFarmed rabbit is milder, paler and smaller; a 3 lb rabbit needs about 50-60 minutes, not 90, and the same barding and basting.
Hare was a common autumn and winter game roast in English and American cookery, and the trussed posture described here, forelegs back and hind legs forward, is the one shown in Victorian carving and cookery books. In Britain the animal was often hung several days before cooking to slacken the muscle, and if it was not young enough to roast it was jugged: jointed, sealed in a tall crock with stock and port, and cooked in a water bath, the blood stirred in at the end to thicken the sauce. The reliance on bacon fat, boiling water and a hot oven is a frank acknowledgement that the animal supplies no fat of its own. Lemon and watercress were a familiar garnish for game in this period, the sharpness meant to cut a rich, dark meat.