Important: Safety Warning
This recipe calls for animal brains or related nervous-system tissue. Cattle brain and spinal tissue can transmit bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which is fatal and has no treatment.
In addition, this page gives advice for salvaging or disguising food that has begun to spoil. Spoiled food can carry dangerous bacteria and toxins that no washing, soaking, or seasoning removes; it should be discarded.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Hare, Roast
INGREDIENTS.-Hare, forcemeat, a little milk, butter.
Choose a young hare; which may be known by its smooth and sharp claws, and by the cleft in the lip not being much spread. To be eaten in perfection, it must hang for some time; and, if properly taken ROAST HARE. care of, it may be kept for several days. It is better to hang without being paunched; but should it be previously emptied, wipe SEASONABLE from September to the end the inside every day, and sprinkle over it a of February.
Note. Should there be any left, re-warm it the next day by putting the hare, &c., into a covered jar, and placing this jar in a saucepan of boiling water; this method prevents a great deal of waste.
Hare, Potted. (A Luncheon or Breakfast Dish.) - INGREDIENTS for 6 small pots.-1 hare, a few slices of bacon, a large bunch of savoury herbs, 4 cloves, ½ teaspoonful of whole allspice, 2 carrots, 2 onions, salt and pepper to taste, 1 pint of water, 2 glasses of sherry. AVERAGE COST, 5s. 6d.
Skin, empty and wash the hare; cut it down the middle, and put it into a stewpan with a few slices of bacon under and over it; add the remaining ingredients, and little pepper and ginger, to prevent the musty taste which long keeping in the damp occasions, and also which affects the stuffing. After it is skinned, wash it well, and soak for an hour in warm water to draw out the blood; if old, let it lie in vinegar for a short time, but wash it well afterwards in several waters. Make a forcemeat, wipe the hare dry, fill the belly with it, and sew it up. Wrap the ears in a piece of buttered paper. The hare should be kept at a distance from the fire when it is first laid down, or the outside will become dry and hard before the inside is done. Baste it well with milk for a short time, and afterwards with butter; and particular attention must be paid to the basting, so as to preserve the meat or HARE, ROAST, TO CARVE. the back juicy and nutritive. When it is almost roasted enough, flour the hare, and baste well with butter. When nicely frothed, dish it, remove the skewers, and send it to table with a little gravy in the dish, and a tureen of the same. Red-currant jelly must also not be forgotten, as this is an indispensable accompaniment to roast hare. For economy, good beef dripping may be substituted for the milk and butter to baste with; but the basting, as we have before stated, must be continued without intermission. If the liver is good, it may be parboiled, minced and mixed with the stuffing; but it should not be used unless quite fresh. Plenty of good gravy should always be served with hare, which otherwise would be rather dry, the juice of the flesh being extracted in the cooking.
TIME. A middling-sized hare, 1 hour; a large hare, 1½ to 2 hours.
SEASONABLE from September to the end of February.
Hare, Roast, To Carve. The "Grand Carver" of olden times, a functionary of no ordinary dignity, was pleased when he had a hare to manipulate, for his skill and grace had an opportunity of display. Dinners à la Russe to a certain extent save modern gentlemen the necessity of learning the art which was in auld lang syne one of the necessary accomplishments of the useful squire; but, until sidetables become universal, or till we see the office of "grand carver" once more instituted, it will be well for all to learn how ROAST HARE.
HARE, TRUSSING OF. indicated by the letters E to F. The shoulders will then be taken off by passing the knife round from Gto H. The back of the hare should now be divided by cutting quite through its spine, as shown by the line A to B, taking care to feel with the point of the knife for a joint where the back may be readily penetrated. It is the usual plan not to serve any bone in helping hare; and thus the flesh should be sliced from the legs and placed alone on the plate. In large establishments, and where men-cooks are kept, it is often the case that the backbone of the hare, especially in old animals, is taken out, and then the process of carving is, of course considerably facilitated. Stuffing is served with it; and the ears, which should be nicely crisp, and the brains of the hare, are esteemed as delicacies by many connoisseurs.
