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Roast Hare
Hares and rabbits are hung and prepared much in the same way. Neither should be drawn before hanging, or they are liable to become musty. In the winter a dry place must be selected in which to hang them and they may then remain for some time. It is well to sprinkle a little pepper over the head of each after they have been skinned, cleaned, washed first in cold water then in warm and finally brushed over with vinegar. When wanted for cooking, if the animal proves too high, soak in tepid water for a time; if blood has settled in any part cut with the point of a knife where it is black and soak in warm water; this will draw out the blood. To prepare it for the oven, wipe dry, fill with good forcemeat, sew up and firmly truss it. It must be flavored well before putting into the oven, roasted slowly and basted well with beef dripping or butter, or the outside will dry up and become hard before the inside is cooked. A thin piece of beefsuet skin may be tied over the back for the first three-quarters of an hour and then removed. One and three-quarters hour is the full time for roasting. Serve with gravy and currant jelly.
A late-Victorian game recipe that assumes a whole hare arriving in fur from a butcher or a hunter. Most of the work described is butchery and ageing; the roasting itself is short and simple.
- The hanging instructions are of their periodHanging an undrawn hare in an unrefrigerated larder "for some time" is traditional game practice from a time before reliable cold storage. Modern handling is to draw the animal promptly and age it, if at all, at refrigerator temperature. Disregard the advice to rescue an animal that has gone "too high" by soaking it in tepid water; meat that smells strongly off should be discarded.
- What you can actually buyWild European hare is rarely sold in the United States. Farmed rabbit, 2 1/2 to 3 lb, is the usual stand-in and comes skinned and drawn. It is much milder in flavor than hare, and will be ready long before the time given here.
- "Roasted slowly"The book gives no temperature. A moderate oven, in the region of 325F, answers the description; a hot oven ruins the dish for exactly the reason the text gives, that the surface hardens before the thick saddle and hind legs are done.
- Timing and donenessOne and three-quarter hours implies a large hare; the book gives no weight. A farmed rabbit needs roughly 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Both are lean enough to dry out, so cook to an internal temperature of 160F at the thickest part of the thigh and rest 10 minutes.
- Beef suet skinThis is the thin membrane from around beef kidney fat, used as a self-basting cover. Sheets of caul fat do the same job; failing that, bard the back with strips of fatback or unsmoked bacon and remove them after 45 minutes as directed.
- Beef drippingThe fat rendered and saved from roast beef, once a standing kitchen ingredient. Clarified butter or a neutral oil basted every 15 minutes works, though dripping gives the savory edge the recipe expects.
- "Good forcemeat"The book assumes you know the sort of stuffing meant; a common version is breadcrumbs, chopped suet or butter, the hare's liver, parsley, lemon zest, thyme, and an egg to bind. Stuffing a whole carcass slows the cooking, so check the center of the forcemeat as well as the meat.
- "Flavored well"Season generously inside and out before it goes in: salt, pepper, and the classic accompaniments to hare are juniper, thyme and bay.
- ServingA hare serves 6 to 8; a rabbit 3 to 4. The recipe says only "gravy"; pan drippings loosened with stock, or a little red wine, will do. The red currant jelly is not optional garnish but the intended counterweight to very dark, iron-flavored meat.
Hare held a settled place in British cookery for centuries, and American books carried it over along with jugged hare, hare soup and the currant jelly that accompanies all of them. The insistence that the animal not be drawn before hanging reflects the older belief that game should ripen in its own skin to develop flavor and tenderize, a practice that survived in Britain longer than in the United States. The Butterick Cook Book (1911), issued by the pattern company as part of its broad line of domestic manuals, carries the entry in a chapter on poultry and game written to cover whatever arrived at the kitchen door -- in America as likely a jackrabbit or a cottontail brought home by a hunter as a butcher-hung hare. The pairing of dark game with a sweet-tart jelly is often likened to the logic that puts applesauce beside pork, and jelly remains a standard accompaniment for hare in European kitchens.