Home › Popular Dixie Dishes › Potted Rabbits

Potted Rabbits

.-Two small rabbits or one large one, one pound fat bacon or fresh butter, one of veal, liver of rabbits, salt, pepper and spices; or fresh butter, one of veal, liver of rabbits, salt, pepper and spices; cut rabbit in pieces, put in stone jar, cut veal and bacon in large dice, mix them, and add a teaspoon of mixed mace, cloves and black pepper, teaspoon salt and fill spaces between pieces of rabbit with this mixture, lay a thin slice of bacon and one bay leaf on top, cover with a lid of plain paste made of flour and water only; set jar in a pan or pot of water; bake in a slow oven three or four hours; a greased paper on top will prevent paste burning; when done and cold pick meat from bones of rabbit, and pound to a paste with veal and bacon, and if any gravy remains in jar, cook very low and mix with meat; taste for seasoning; press firmly into small jars or cups, cover top with melted butter, keep well covered in a cool place. Potted meats keep for months, and can be used as needed. Potted rabbits make delightful sandwiches using split baking powder biscuits buttering one half, spreading meat on the other.

TO BAKE A FRESH BEEF TONGUE. - Parboil in small quantity of salted water for two hours; skin and remove rough part; roll in cracker dust, then for two hours; skin and remove rough part; roll in cracker dust, then in beaten egg and again in cracker dust, and lay in pan to bake; season with salt and pepper , pour over it half a pint of the liquor in which it was boiled. Baste well with butter while baking.

TONGUE TOAST. - Take cold well boiled tongue, minced fine, mix well with cream or a little milk; add beaten yolk one egg, simmer slowly; toast thin slices stale bread, butter and spread in a flat, heated dish, cover with tongue and serve quickly.-Mrs. S.

RAGOUT OF SWEET BREADS AND MUSHROOMS.-Two or three large sweetbreads, or one pound; one-half can of mushrooms; two ounces of butter-size of an egg; one tablespoonful of flour; little minced onion and ham for seasoning; juice of one lemon; cayenne and salt; fried shapes of bread for the border; take the sweetbreads already cooked and cold, and cut them into large dice. Make the sauce for them in a deep saucepan, first putting in half the butter, a large teaspoonful of minced onion and a very thin slice of ham and when these are cooked enough for flavor without browning put in the flour and stir the mixture over the fire until it begins to color. Then add gradually the mushroom liquor and a cupful of the liquor the sweetbreads were boiled in; let it boil up and become thick. Add a pinch of cayenne. Next, melt the other piece of butter in a frying pan, put in the mushrooms and the cut of sweetbreads and shake them about over the fire until they begin to show color; take it off, squeeze in the juice of the lemon and then strain in the thick sauce from the other vessel. Dish them heaped up in the centre of a flat platter, or of small dishes for individual orders, and place a border of thin shapes of bread fried in lard around the edge. Fried crusts or shapes for garnishing. In a case where economy is not in question, the handsomest shape for a border can be made by taking a stale, long and narrow loaf of bread and trimming down on both sides to some pattern (like a piece of carperter's mouldings), so that when it is sliced up with a sharp knife the slices will be heartshaped, or leaf or club or spade-shaped, etc., and all alike. Simple triangles may be set up on edge around a large dish, and fastened to stand by dipping the bottoms in egg and then making the dish hot enough to dry it. This makes a raised case, into which a ragout like that of the foregoing receipt may be poured. Or a long and slender leaf shape may be laid on the small dish, projecting well over the side, and the ragout of fricasse dished upon the end of it. All these shapes are first to be fried, either in lard or the clear part of melted butter. They take but about one minute in the fat, when it is hot, and need care to have them all of a nice even color. Cold rolls and slices can be used in similar ways.