Recipes Of The Damned–November 6, 2000: Jugged Hare
From Mrs. Beeton’s Every Day Cookery and Housekeeping Book,(facsimile of the 1865 edition) (for more about Mrs. Beeton, see “Brawn”).
Having treated tripe last week, it’s time to turn our attention to rabbit. I have not had rabbit myself, and I don’t think it’s widely popular in the United States. I remember when I was in junior high school, a franchise fast-food restaurant that specialized in fried rabbit opened near the Purdue campus. It didn’t last more than about a year, which must have been as long as it took those who were intrigued by the novelty to satisfy their curiosity. It had some awful punny name, which I have since forgotten. Friends of mine who visited a supermarket in Paris reported seeing whole rabbits bagged in the frozen food section; they found it a reminder that they were not in their own home comfort zone any more. (I had that realization in an English supermarket when I came across prepackaged haggis.) But none of us made any effort to procure or taste rabbit, preferring to think of them as pets rather than meat. (Though for the record I’ve never kept a pet rabbit either.)
Mrs. Beeton’s recipe is intriguing not just because it uses rabbit, but because it seems one of the more alien forms in which contemporary American cooks and diners might encounter rabbit. Actually, with this recipe they would be encountering hare. Mrs. Beeton offers recipes for both hare and rabbit, and different recipes at that, but I didn’t find anywhere an explanation of the significance of the difference, i.e. is one usually tougher or is one more flavorful. (They are different animals, but only just.) I was drawn to this recipe because of its several steps, the peculiarity of boiling something in gravy in a jar, and the use of lemon in what seems to be a red-meat-dominated dish. I suppose it’s not very much lemon, but I can’t quite figure out how it would help the taste. Also I was really amused by the bill of fare for a 6-person dinner party. These must be 6 persons of a very high class indeed, to have either the means or the stomach for such a vast offering of food. No doubt each diner takes only small portions of each chosen dish, and is not obligated or expected to sample everything; but still, it strikes me as a heck of a lot of food. I must note here too that by “dessert” Mrs. Beeton means fresh fruit and delicate cakes specifically, and is not intending any redundancy with the creams and puddings listed here. Though why a beef-gravy-topped jugged hare is included with the meringue and custard is completely beyond me.
November Bill of Fare: Dinner for 6 persons
First course—Oyster soup; crimped cod and oyster sauce; fried perch and Dutch sauce. Entrees—Pigs’ feet a la Bechamel; curried rabbit. Second course—Roast sucking-pig; boiled fowls and oyster sauce; vegetables. Third course—Jugged hare; meringues a la crème; apple custard; vol-au-vent of pears; whipped cream; cabinet pudding; dessert.
Jugged Hare
Ingredients—1 hare, 1 1/2 lb. of gravy beef, 1/2 lb. of butter, 1 onion, 1 lemon, 6 cloves; pepper, cayenne, and salt to taste; 1/2 pint of port wine. Mode—Skin, paunch, and wash the hare, cut it into pieces, dredge them with flour, and fry in boiling butter. Have ready 1 1/2 pint of gravy, made from the above proportions of beef, and thickened with a little flour. Put this into a jar; add the pieces of fried hare, an onion stuck with six cloves, a lemon peeled and cut in half, and a good seasoning of pepper, cayenne, and salt; cover the jar down tightly, put it up to the neck into a stewpan of boiling water, and let it stew until the hare is quite tender, taking care to keep the water boiling. When nearly done, pour in the wine, and add a few forcemeat balls: these must be fried or baked in the oven for a few minutes before they are put to the gravy. Serve with red-currant jelly. Time—3 1/2 to 4 hours. If the hare is very old, allow 4 1/2 hours. Average cost—7 s. Sufficient for 7 or 8 persons. Seasonable from September to the end of February.
From Mrs. Beeton’s Every Day Cookery and Housekeeping Book,(facsimile of the 1865 edition) (for more about Mrs. Beeton, see “Brawn”).
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