Modern cookery for private families by Eliza Acton

minutes with lukewarm water mixed with a very little salt; throw this away, and put into the pan a quart or more of new milk; keep it constantly laded over the hare until it is nearly dried up, then add a large lump of butter, flour the hare, and continue the basting steadily until it is well browned; for unless this be done, and the roast be kept at a proper distance from the fire, the outside will become so dry and hard as to be quite uneatable. Serve the hare when done, with good brown gravy (of which a little should be poured round it in the dish), and with fine red currant jelly. This is an approved English method of dressing it, but we would recommend in preference, that it should be basted plentifully with butter from the beginning (the strict economist may substitute clarified beef-dripping, or marrow, and finish with a small quantity of butter only); and that the salt and water should be altogether omitted. First-rate cooks merely wipe the hare inside and out, and rub it with its own blood before it is laid to the fire; but there is generally a rankness about it, especially after it has been many days killed, which, we should say, renders the washing indispensable, unless a coarse game-flavour be liked. 1-1/4 to 1-3/4 hour. ROAST HARE. (_Superior Receipt._) A hare may be rendered far more plump in appearance, and infinitely easier to carve, by taking out the bones of the back and thighs, or of the former only: in removing this a very sharp knife should be used, and much care will be required to avoid cutting through the skin just over the spine, as it adheres closely to the bone. Nearly double the usual quantity of forcemeat must be prepared: with this restore the legs to their original shape, and fill the body, which should previously be lined with delicate slices of the nicest bacon, of which the rind and edges have been trimmed away. Sew up the hare, truss it as usual; lard it or not, as is most convenient, keep it basted plentifully with butter while roasting, and serve it with the customary sauce. We have found two tablespoonsful of the finest currant jelly, melted in half a pint of rich brown gravy, an acceptable accompaniment to hare, when the taste has been in favour of a sweet sauce. To remove the back-bone, clear from it first the flesh in the inside; lay this back to the right and left from the centre of the bone to the tips; then work the knife on the upper side quite to the spine, and when the whole is detached except the skin which adheres to this, separate the bone at the first joint from the neck-bone or ribs (we know not how more correctly to describe it), and pass the knife with caution under the skin down the middle of the back. The directions for boning the thighs of a fowl will answer equally for those of a hare, and we therefore refer the reader to them. STEWED HARE. Wash and soak the hare thoroughly, wipe it very dry, cut it down into joints dividing the largest, flour and brown it slightly in butter with some bits of lean ham, pour to them by degrees a pint and a half of gravy, and stew the hare _very gently_ from an hour and a half to two hours: when it is about one third done add the very thin rind of half a large lemon, and ten minutes before it is served stir to it a large dessertspoonful of rice-flour, smoothly mixed with two tablespoonsful of good mushroom catsup, a quarter of a teaspoonful or more of mace, and something less of cayenne. This is an excellent plain receipt for stewing a hare; but the dish may be enriched with forcemeat (No. 1,