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.
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Hasenpfeffer
Use tougher parts-everything but the saddle-and all the edible giblets, heart, liver, and lungs, plus the head. Lay in a crock, cover with mild vinegar, and let soak 12 hours. Drain pieces and wipe dry. Dip in seasoned flour. Fry brown in bacon fat. Cover bottom of kettle with bacon slices, and lay rabbit on top scattering through the following seasonings:
I CHOPPED ONION 6 WHOLE PEPPERS 2 CLOVES I DASH GINGER I BAY LEAF, BROKEN I TABLESPOON SUGAR I STALK CELERY, SLICED Brown 2-3 tablespoons flour in frying pan remains adding more fat if necessary, add sufficient water to cover rabbit, stirring to prevent lumps. Cook and stir until boiling. Pour over rabbit and simmer until tender, about 2 hours. This dish usually has 1/2 cup red wine added during the simmering. But a little currant jelly stirred into the gravy at the end will give a similar touch.
A German sour-marinated rabbit stew, built here from the tough cuts rather than the loin. Two things govern the result: the length of the vinegar soak and the browned-flour gravy.
- The hinge: brown the flour, don't just stir it inThe 2-3 tablespoons of flour go into the fat left from frying and must be cooked to a nut-brown roux before any water is added. That colour is where the gravy's flavour comes from; pale flour and water gives a thin, pasty sauce.
- Marinate cold, not on the counterA twelve-hour soak in "mild vinegar" in an unrefrigerated crock suited a cold larder. Do it in the refrigerator in a glass, ceramic or stainless vessel. "Mild vinegar" most likely means a vinegar weakened with water or wine rather than one used at full strength; a harsh distilled vinegar is the least suitable choice.
- Which parts"Everything but the saddle" means forelegs, hind legs, ribs, neck and flaps. The saddle is reserved because it roasts or fries quickly and would overcook in a two-hour simmer.
- Giblets and headLungs (older books say lights) and heads are hard to find at retail and are easiest to come by if you have butchered the animal yourself. Both go soft and shreddy in a long braise. If you skip them, the dish loses nothing structurally; add the liver near the end of the simmer so it does not turn grainy.
- Wild rabbit handlingWild rabbits and hares can carry tularemia, which is contracted through cuts and abrasions during skinning and dressing rather than from eating cooked meat. Wear gloves when butchering, and cook through, which a two-hour simmer amply does.
- Seasonings, translated"6 whole peppers" means six black peppercorns; "2 cloves" means whole cloves, not garlic. A dash of ginger here is ground dried ginger. Tie the peppercorns, cloves and bay in a scrap of muslin if you would rather not fish them out.
- Fat and panBacon fat is the correct medium and the bacon lining the kettle both greases the base and seasons the braise. Use a heavy Dutch oven; a thin pan will scorch the flour gravy at the bottom over two hours.
- Wine or jellyThe recipe adds the half cup of red wine during the simmering, so it has time to lose its raw edge. For the substitution, stir currant jelly into the gravy at the end until it dissolves.
- YieldNo yield is stated; one rabbit less the saddle will stretch to two or three servings. Serve with egg noodles, potato dumplings or boiled potatoes to take the gravy.
Hasenpfeffer is literally "hare pepper" -- Pfeffer in old German cookery names a dark, sharply spiced stew thickened with blood and soured with vinegar. The dish travelled to America with German-speaking settlers, and in later American versions the blood had generally dropped out, replaced by browned flour and, as here, a spoonful of currant jelly standing in for the wine. In this version the loin is held back as the prize cut, to be roasted or pan-fried, and the sour marinade serves to make the sinewy front end and the giblets of an older animal palatable. Currant jelly with game is a long-standing British and German pairing, of a piece with redcurrant alongside venison and lamb -- sweet acidity against strong, lean meat.