Jugged Hare

To prepare this dish the hare should not be too tender; those are only desirable when eaten roasted. Skin the hare, draw it well reserving the blood in a small bowl with a dash of vinegar added. Separate the four limbs from the back, cut them up into medium-sized pieces and split the head in two, then cut the back across. Lay these parts in a vessel to season and marinate with a few spoonfuls of brandy, aromatic herbs and sprigs of parsley; leave them in this for five to six hours. Melt in a saucepan half a pound of chopped fat pork, add to it half a pound of bacon cut in flat squares, and as soon as these are browned, remove them with a skimmer, leaving the fat in the saucepan, and to it add the well drained pieces of hare. Fry over a very brisk fire stirring at times, and when the meats are well browned, besprinkle with two spoonfuls of flour; cook this while turning for a few minutes, then moisten the stew to its height, with a third part of good red wine previously boiled in an untinned copper vessel, and two-thirds of broth (No. 194a), adding both very slowly. Stir the liquid until it boils and let it continue thus for ten minutes; withdraw the saucepan to a slower fire, put in a bunch of aromatic herbs, two or three small onions and mushroom parings. Continue the cooking until the meats are partly done, then set a large colander on top of a vessel and pour into it the stew; return the sauce to a sautoir, adding to it a few spoonfuls of red wine, boil the same as before, add a few spoonfuls of gravy (No. 404) to enrich it, reduce for a few moments, skimming off the fat and put it back into the first saucepan. Take up the pieces of hare one by one, pare them free of all superfluous bone and return them to the sauce, all except the head, and add the bacon and the marinade the hare was in. Place the saucepan on the fire to finish cooking the meats very slowly; twenty minutes before taking off the stew, mix in with it two dozen mushrooms and finish cooking all together. At the last moment thicken the gravy with the blood laid aside, being careful that once this is added not to let it boil again. Dress the meats and bacon on a dish, strain the sauce over and surround with clusters of mushrooms and the same of small onions glazed separately.