No. 2559

Hare Pie in a Dish

Pate de Lievre dans un Plat

Remove the meats from two young hares, keep the tenderloins and minion fillets apart and pare the remainder, suppressing all the skin and sinews; cut the meats into pieces and range them in a sautoir with half a pound of grated fat pork, the liver, the lights, and a tablespoonful of finely chopped onions; toss the whole over a brisk fire without letting it attain color, then take off to cool; chop and pound with three-quarters of a pound of grated fresh fat pork and four ounces of fresh pork tenderloins. Pare the reserved tenderloins and minion fillets, cut them in half-inch squares and add to them half a pound of peeled and cut-up truffles; season with salt and pepper and throw over a gill of Madeira wine and as much brandy. Two hours later put in the cooked meats. Line a deep pie dish, fit to go in the oven, with thin slices of fat pork, pour in the preparation and cover with a slice of the same pork, thyme and bay leaf, then lay over a foundation paste (No. 135) cover, egg it twice and bake in a moderate oven; when done allow to cool, remove both cover and pork, clean the dish, place on a folded napkin, then decorate the edges of the pie dish with a border of jelly croutons and the center with chopped jelly.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's hare pie is a straightforward forcemeat terrine baked under a pastry lid that is a vessel rather than a course. Most of the difficulty is vocabulary and sourcing.

The hinge: the crust is not foodThe hinge: the crust is a lid, not a course -- The foundation paste (No. 135) covers the dish while the meat bakes, and the recipe has it lifted off before serving along with the fat pork lining; the pie is then presented as cold forcemeat garnished with jelly. Do not treat it as a pie crust to be thinned or enriched.
Gill and other measuresA gill is half a cup, so a gill each of Madeira and brandy is one cup of alcohol total for roughly five pounds of meat and fat. Weights in ounces and pounds are avoirdupois and translate directly.
"Moderate oven"Roughly 325-350F. The recipe gives neither temperature nor time, so judge by the centre reaching a safe 160F, checked through a hole in the pastry lid, rather than by the clock.
Hares and minion filletsThe recipe specifies two young hares; farmed rabbit is the usual modern stand-in, though it is milder and drier. The "minion fillets" are the two small strips lying under the saddle, the equivalent of filets mignons, kept off the pounding and diced so they show as pieces in the finished slice.
LightsLights are lungs. They cannot be sold for human food in the United States and are hard to find elsewhere outside a specialist game dealer. Omitting them costs the pie a little iron-tasting depth; extra liver is the closest available substitute.
Fat porkThe recipe calls the three-quarter pound of grated pork "fresh fat pork," i.e. unsalted back fat rather than bacon or salt pork, and the same is the safer reading for the lining slices and the first half pound, since salted fat would push an already seasoned mixture over. Grate it half-frozen.
TrufflesHalf a pound of truffles reflects 1890s New York prices and supply. A few ounces of fresh black truffle, or the same weight of cooked cremini with a little truffle in among them, keeps the texture without the outlay.
Jelly croutons and chopped jellyA firm clear aspic, set in a shallow tray, then cut into small triangles or diamonds for the border and chopped coarsely for the centre. It is garnish only; the pie itself is not set in jelly.
Yield and serviceA dish of this size is a cold buffet item for a large table. The recipe has it cooled before the cover and pork are removed; it will slice more cleanly once thoroughly chilled.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits in a run of cold pies filed under garnishings because their whole point was the buffet table: the pastry lid was structural, the aspic border decorative, and the dish went out on a folded napkin. Hare pie belongs to the French pâté tradition Ranhofer trained in before coming to New York, in which hare, pork fat and wine were a long-established autumn combination. The recipe's assumption that a kitchen can lay hands on two young hares, their livers and lights, and half a pound of truffles is a fair measure of what a first-rank American restaurant of the period expected of its game suppliers. The numbering here runs straight on to a hare pie without a mold, so the dish was evidently made in more than one form.