Wild Rabbit Jugged with Blood

Procure a good, young, fleshy wild rabbit, preserve all the blood in a bowl, stirring into it a little vinegar to keep it liquid. Skin and prepare it, and cut it up into equal-sized pieces. Put the meats into a vessel to season and let marinate for two hours with a little boiled vinegar, a little white wine and a tied bunch of fresh and wild thyme. Chop up some fat pork, melt it in a frying pan and add to it half a pound of small squares of bacon; after these are well sized, remove them with a skimmer and add to the fat the well-drained pieces of rabbit and cut up onions; fry over a good fire until the meats are nicely browned and have evaporated their moisture, then put them into a fireproof stone vessel with a glassful of red wine; reduce this over a brisk fire and moisten the meats at once to their height with white wine and stock (No. 194a); let this liquid come to a boil, then remove the vessel on one side to boil gently until partly done; strain the liquid through a sieve, pare the surplus bones from the meats and return the latter to the saucepan with the cut up bacon, the marinade, a bunch of parsley and a peeled clove of garlic. Put the stew back on the fire and thicken it with a little cooked roux or diluted flour, finish cooking slowly. A few moments before serving, transfer all the pieces of rabbit and bacon into another saucepan, strain the sauce over and boil up once or twice thickening it off the fire with the reserved blood; let cook again but without boiling. Dress the stew on a dish and surround it with small clusters of onions glazed separately, if intended for a more ceremonious dish, a few clusters of fresh, peeled mushrooms cooked in butter may be added.