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Rabbit Pie
Clean and skin two or more rabbits, cut them up into joints, and then again into small pieces, removing all the largest bones; add about one pound of steak, and a few slices of bacon also cut up small, sprinkle the whole over with finely-minced parsley and thyme, and salt and pepper to taste; put them at the bottom of a pie-dish intermixed with a few forcemeat balls or yolks of hard-boiled eggs, pour over enough stock or water to moisten, place a crust of light paste on the top, brush it over with beaten eggs slightly salted, place the dish in a moderate oven, and bake for a couple of hours. When cooked take it out, and serve it either hot or cold.
A straightforward raised-lid meat pie of the kind Oscar's kitchen would have turned out by the dozen. Most of what needs translating is vocabulary and oven language.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F. Two hours at that heat is right for rabbit on the bone plus beef; if the crust colours too fast in the first half hour, tent it with foil and carry on.
- Rabbits, and how much meatA dressed farmed rabbit runs about 2.5-3 lb and yields roughly 1.5 lb of meat. Two rabbits plus a pound of steak makes enough for a large deep dish and will serve six to eight, depending on the dish. The recipe says "two or more," so scale to what you have. Wild rabbit is leaner and tougher and wants the full two hours.
- "A pound of steak"Not a grilling cut. Use chuck, skirt or shin, cut into half-inch dice; the collagen is what gives the gravy body over a long bake. Rabbit alone would come out dry and thin-tasting, which is precisely why the beef is there.
- Light pasteA short flaky pastry or rough puff for the lid. There is no bottom crust here despite the name "pie-dish" filling, so a single sheet rolled about 1/4 inch thick is enough. Cut a vent or set a pie funnel in the centre, or the steam will lift and split the lid.
- Forcemeat ballsSmall dumplings of minced pork or veal bound with breadcrumb, egg and herbs, rolled marble-size. Sausage meat rolled into balls does the same job. The hard-boiled yolks are the alternative, not an addition.
- "Enough stock to moisten"Take this literally: enough liquid to wet the meat, not to submerge it. The meat renders as it bakes, and a flooded pie pushes at the lid from underneath. Chicken or veal stock suits rabbit better than beef.
- Removing the largest bonesWorth the ten minutes. Rabbit saddle and leg bones are fine and splintery, and a pie eaten cold with a fork is no place for them. Simmer the bones you pull out to make the stock that goes in.
- Serving coldIf you mean to eat it cold, a stock with enough body to set will give you jelly under the crust; a little dissolved gelatine will do the same if your stock is thin. Chill well before cutting.
Rabbit pie was ordinary English and Anglo-American cooking long before it reached a Fifth Avenue hotel kitchen, and the phrasing here — pie-dish, light paste, forcemeat balls — belongs to the British domestic tradition that sits alongside the French service dishes elsewhere in the book. Rabbit was cheap protein through the nineteenth century, farmed and wild alike, and the pairing with beefsteak and bacon compensates for a meat that carries almost no fat of its own. The instruction to serve it hot or cold suits a dish that could go to table either way, and a pie built to be sliced the next day was good economy.