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Forcemeat of Hare's Liver
Place the livers of two or three hares in a mortar, and pound to a pulp, with about one-half their bulk of beef-kidney suet and bacon fat in equal proportions. Season with ground cloves, pepper and salt. If enough hare's livers are not obtainable, a little of the flesh can be used. Add a little cream, and mix in the yolks of two eggs in order to make the forcemeat of proper consistence. Put it into a stewpan and set it over the fire for ten or twelve minutes, stirring constantly until it becomes quite stiff, when it will be ready to serve with the game.
A classic French game forcemeat, written for a kitchen with hares hanging in the larder and a marble mortar on the bench. The quantities are proportional rather than measured, which is normal for this kind of professional shorthand.
- What this actually isNot a stuffing baked inside anything, but a soft, stiffened liver paste served alongside roast hare or game birds, or spread on fried croutons set under the joint to catch the juices. Treat it as a coarse pâté that finishes in a pan rather than an oven.
- Sourcing the liversHare is sold in the US mainly through game dealers and by mail order; rabbit or duck liver is the closest domestic substitute in texture, though both are milder. If you buy a whole hare, keep the liver and heart, which are usually tucked into the cavity.
- Beef-kidney suetThe hard fat from around the kidneys, available whole from a butcher on request, or packaged shredded (chiefly a British product). Packaged shredded suet is usually dusted with flour, which will thicken the mixture; ask for fresh suet if you can. Together with the bacon fat it should come to about half the volume of liver.
- The mortarA food processor does the same job in seconds, but pulse rather than run it, and keep the fat cold. Over-processing warms the suet and the mixture will separate in the pan.
- ClovesGround cloves overwhelm liver quickly. An eighth of a teaspoon for this quantity is plenty.
- The hinge: gentle heatTen or twelve minutes of constant stirring means low heat. This is an egg-bound mixture and it will curdle and weep fat if it is pushed. Stir until it thickens and pulls from the sides of the pan, then stop -- overcooked liver turns grainy and metallic.
- DonenessThe mixture should reach 160F, which the described stiffening will comfortably achieve. Liver from wild game is worth cooking through rather than leaving pink.
- YieldEnough to accompany a roast hare or a brace of game birds, four to six servings as a garnish. It does not keep well; make it the day it is served.
Forcemeat -- from the French farce, by way of the older English farce-meat -- covered any pounded, seasoned mixture bound with fat and egg, and in nineteenth-century game cookery the liver version is often said to have been common practice. The animal's own liver was pounded with suet and served under or beside the roast, both as an economy and as a way of returning the concentrated flavor of the beast to the plate; the same logic produces the liver croutons served under roast woodcock and snipe. Oscar Tschirky's book, published in 1896 while he was maitre d'hotel at the Waldorf, is largely a record of the French repertoire as it was practiced in a large American hotel kitchen. Hare was, by most accounts, available in New York in season; its near-disappearance from American menus, rather than any change in the technique, is why the recipe now reads as exotic.