No. 2604

Terrine of Wild Rabbits

Terrine de Lapins Sauvages

Cut off the limbs of two or three wild rabbits previously skinned, cleaned, and the meats nicely wiped; bone the four limbs and the back, cut the back fillets in pieces, also the meat from the legs, and lard them with shreds of raw ham and bits of truffles; lay them in a vessel to season with pulverized wild thyme, and pour over a few spoonfuls of brandy or Madeira wine; let macerate for two or three hours, adding a few spoonfuls of cooked fine herbs (No. 385). With the minion fillets and the nicest parings prepare a forcemeat, mix with it an equal quantity of baking forcemeat (No. 81), and to this dressing add the marinade from the meats. Cover the bottom and sides of a cooking terrine with a layer of the prepared forcemeat, then begin to fill it with the pieces of rabbit intermingled with large lardons of foies-gras and truffles, both raw, but seasoned, and alternate the forcemeat with layers of the meats; cover the top with forcemeat and thin slices of fat pork over all. Set the terrine into a deep baking pan containing hot water, and bake for one hour and a quarter to one hour and a half in a moderate oven; after it has been removed one quarter of an hour set a weight on top and allow to cool off.

← No. 2603 Terrine of Snipe Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2605 Timbale of Pheasants with Truffles →

For the Modern Kitchen

A pâté en terrine of jointed wild rabbit set in a double forcemeat, cooked in a water bath and pressed under weight. Ranhofer writes for a kitchen with numbered reference preparations on hand, so the cross-references need filling in before you start.

The hinge: press it while warmThe weight goes on fifteen minutes after the terrine leaves the oven, while the fat is still liquid. Press too late and the fat sets in pockets, leaving the loaf crumbly and full of gaps; press while warm and it fills every space and seals the meat as it cools. Use about 2 lb, on a board or pan cut to fit inside the rim.
Moderate ovenTake it as roughly 325-350F. The recipe gives a range of an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half; check the centre, around 160F, rather than going by the clock.
Terrine and bain-marieA "cooking terrine" is an earthenware mold, not the modern casserole dish; the recipe gives no capacity, and it seals the top with thin slices of fat pork rather than specifying a lid. Fill the outer pan with hot water part way up the sides of the terrine and top it up if it drops.
The two forcemeatsNo. 81 is Ranhofer's baking forcemeat and No. 385 his cooked fine herbs (a shallot, mushroom and parsley preparation); look both up in the book before starting rather than assuming their composition. Modern stand-in: an equal-parts ground pork shoulder and pork fatback farce, seasoned and bound with an egg, mixed half and half with the ground rabbit trim.
Minion filletsFilets mignons here means the small strips of tenderloin lying against the saddle bones, not beef. They are too thin to lard, which is why they go into the forcemeat.
Larding and lardonsThe "large lardons of foies-gras" are batons of raw foie gras, not the seared slices sold as escalopes; look for grade A lobe. Raw ham means prosciutto or another dry-cured ham cut into shreds and threaded through the fillets with a larding needle.
Wild thymeSerpolet, creeping thyme, milder and more resinous than garden thyme. Ordinary thyme works; use a little less.
Maceration temperatureThe two to three hours in brandy or Madeira should happen in the refrigerator, not on a counter, and the marinade is poured back into the forcemeat rather than discarded.
Wild rabbitShot rabbit carries lead fragments well away from the visible wound; feel through every piece before it goes into the mold. Farmed rabbit substitutes directly but is blander and somewhat fattier.
Yield and keepingTwo or three rabbits fill a good-sized terrine, enough for a dozen or so slices as a first course. Hold it under its fat, refrigerated, for a day or two before cutting.

A Little History

Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire written out at length, which is why numbers 2603, 2604 and 2605 march through snipe, wild rabbit and pheasant in a row: game terrines were often a staple of the cold buffet, sliced and set out with aspic and garnish rather than plated to order. Wild rabbit is generally said to have been inexpensive and readily available in nineteenth-century American markets, and the terrine is a classically economical construction: the loin and legs go in whole, the scraps and small tenderloins become the binding forcemeat, and nothing is wasted except the bones. The extravagance is grafted on top in the form of truffles and raw foie gras, imported luxuries that turned a hunter's preparation into something a Delmonico's customer would pay for. The technique itself is much older than the book: sealing seasoned meat under fat in an earthenware pot and weighting it as it cools is a preservation method that predates refrigeration by centuries, and the French word terrine derives from the earthenware pot, though it now names both the pot and the dish cooked in it.