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To Jug a Hare
512. Skin the hare and clean it, cut it up scientifically, and put it in a pan with a bouquet of sweet-herbs and parsley, also an onion adorned with cloves, a blade of mace, a glass of port-wine, and rather more water than will cover it. Put it on the stove and let it stew very gently till the meat is done, then take it off and thicken the gravy; when sufficiently boiled pass it through a sieve, then add a little ketchup soy, and cayenne to the taste, and pour it over the hare .
Take care to have it dished up hot; and some add to it a few forcemeat balls.
A gentle brown stew of hare, thickened at the end and finished with the sharp bottled seasonings a Victorian cook kept at hand. The important thing is heat control: the pot should barely tremble for the whole cooking time, or the lean leg meat turns to string.
- Sourcing the hareWhole hare in the fur is a game-dealer or online order in most places now; ask for it skinned and jointed if you would rather not do it. A hare of roughly 5-8 lb will serve four to six. Rabbit can stand in but is milder and cooks considerably faster.
- "Cut it up scientifically"Most likely jointing at the natural seams rather than chopping through bone: hind legs split at the hip, forelegs off whole, saddle cut across into two or three pieces, ribcage and neck kept for the pot. The bony front end gives the gravy its body.
- What "jugged" impliesTraditionally the jointed hare went into a tall stoneware jug or jar, sealed, and stood in a pan of simmering water for hours. This version has moved to direct stewing on the stove; a heavy lidded casserole or Dutch oven at the barest simmer, or a 300F oven, gives the same slow, even result.
- TimingReckon 2 to 3 hours for a mature hare, less for a young one, until the leg meat pulls easily from the bone. It is done when the thickest part of the hind leg gives no resistance, not at a fixed clock time.
- Bouquet and onionThe bouquet of sweet herbs is thyme, parsley, marjoram and a bay leaf tied with string. "An onion adorned with cloves" is an onion stuck with four or five whole cloves, a blade of mace being one thin piece of the outer casing of nutmeg; a quarter teaspoon of ground mace is a fair substitute.
- Ketchup and soyNineteenth-century ketchup here means mushroom or walnut ketchup, dark, thin and salty, not tomato. Soy was the bottled dark soy of the period. Use a tablespoon of mushroom ketchup and a teaspoon or two of dark soy sauce, tasting as you go, since both carry a lot of salt.
- Thickening the gravyLift the meat out and keep it warm, then thicken the strained liquid with a kneaded paste of equal butter and flour whisked in over heat, about 1 oz of each per pint. Many older jugged hare recipes finish with the reserved blood, which must go in off the boil or it will curdle; the wine and ketchup here do the job without it.
- Forcemeat ballsThe optional balls are breadcrumbs, suet or butter, grated lemon zest, chopped herbs and the minced liver, bound with egg and rolled small. Fry or poach them separately and add at the end so they keep their shape.
- ServingRedcurrant jelly and plain boiled or mashed potato are the usual accompaniments, and the dish wants to reach the table genuinely hot, as the sauce sets and dulls quickly once it cools.