No. 2598

Terrine of Hare

Terrine de Lievre

Choose a fresh-skinned and clean hare, remove the fillets from the back, the minion fillets and the kidneys, reserving these apart. Take the meat from the shoulders and legs and chop it well; mix with it an equal quantity of boned turkey forcemeat (No. 65), and an equal quantity of baking forcemeat (No. 64); mix well. Pare the large fillets from the hare's back; cut them up into big squares and put into a vessel with the minion fillets and kidneys cut likewise, adding as much blanched fat pork cut the same, a few raw truffles and a piece of foies-gras; season these meats and pour over a few spoonfuls of brandy and Madeira wine, then let macerate for a few hours. Select a proper-sized cooking terrine, cover the bottom and around with thin slices of fat pork and fill it up in layers, intermingling each layer of forcemeat with a bed of the squares prepared before-hand, and finishing with forcemeat on top; cover the whole with fat pork. Set the terrine on a baking pan with a little hot water and let bake for one hour and a half to two hours in a slow oven; after removing, put it away in a cool place, with a weight laid on top, for three-quarters of an hour at least, and serve it only after twenty-four hours has elapsed; remove the fat from the top, and garnish with chopped jelly and croutons (No. 2442).

← No. 2597 Terrine of Kernel of Ham Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2599 Terrine of Larks →

For the Modern Kitchen

A classic layered game pâté: coarse forcemeat alternating with marinated cubes of hare, foie gras and truffle, baked in a water bath and pressed. Almost everything about it still works, but the cross-references and the vague oven make it hard to follow cold.

The hinge: internal temperature, not the clockAn hour and a half to two hours assumes a particular terrine size and a cool oven. Bake to an internal temperature of 155-160F (68-71C) at the centre and stop there; hare is very lean and goes dry and grainy past that point.
"Slow oven"Around 300F (150C). The recipe asks only for the terrine to sit in a baking pan with a little hot water, not a full bain-marie halfway up the mould; even a shallow water bath moderates the heat so the outer edges do not set before the middle cooks.
The two forcemeatsNo. 65 is the boned turkey forcemeat and No. 64 the "baking" (pâté) forcemeat; the composition of each has to be taken from those entries, as this recipe does not give it. In practice a mix of two parts fatty pork shoulder to one part hare and one part turkey or chicken, well seasoned and bound with egg, gives a comparable result. Keep total fat at roughly a third of the mixture by weight or the finished terrine will crumble when sliced.
"Minion fillets"The filets mignons of the hare: the two small strips of tenderloin lying under the saddle, alongside the larger back fillets. On a hare they are slim, so cut them into shorter lengths rather than true squares.
Fat porkFresh back fat, sliced thin for lining the terrine and cut into dice for the interior. Blanching means a brief dip in simmering water to firm it and take off the raw taste. Sliced pork fatback or unsmoked, unsalted lardo works; bacon changes the flavour entirely.
Sourcing the hareEuropean hare is not sold in most American markets. Order from a game dealer, or substitute two rabbits, which are milder and leaner still — the loins in particular need protecting with extra fat. Wild hare may carry lead shot; run your fingers through the boned meat before chopping.
Maceration"A few hours" is a minimum. Overnight in the refrigerator, covered, is better, and it lets the salt penetrate the cubes so they read as seasoned against the forcemeat.
Pressing and restingThree-quarters of an hour under weight is only the initial press, while the terrine is still warm; use a board cut to fit and a couple of pounds on top. The twenty-four-hour rest is not optional — the fat sets, the jelly forms and the flavour of the brandy and Madeira settles into the meat. Two days is better.
YieldThe recipe specifies only "a proper-sized cooking terrine." A vessel of about 1.5 quarts filled this way should give roughly twelve to sixteen first-course servings, cut in slices about half an inch thick and served cool but not refrigerator-cold. Sealed under its own fat and covered, it will hold for several days in the refrigerator.

A Little History

Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this terrine belongs to the grand cold buffet of that era — dishes built to sit on a sideboard, glazed and garnished with chopped aspic and croutons, looking impressive for hours. The terrine itself is named for its vessel: an earthenware dish, from Old French terrin, "of earth," the pot lending its name to what is baked and served in it. Hare suited that repertoire because it is dark and strongly flavoured, and because its leanness demands exactly the treatment given here, layered with pork fat and enriched with foie gras. The structure — a forcemeat interleaved with a marinated salpicon of cubed meat, fat, truffle and liver — is a standard charcutier's method of the period, and it is what produces the mosaic pattern in the slice.