N.B.—This recipe was given by the Comte de Mornay himself to the proprietors of the famous Parisian restaurant, and for a long while the dish was one of the specialities of a house no longer extant.
[1818—FILETS DE LEVRAUT A LA VENDOME]
After having [contised] the leveret’s fillets, roll them round a buttered tin mould, and fasten them with a string, that they may form rings.
Set to poach. Meanwhile, spread on a buttered tray a layer one-half inch thick of game forcemeat; poach the latter; stamp it out by means of an even cutter into roundels of the same size as the rings, and set one of these on each of the forcemeat roundels, fixing it by means of a little raw forcemeat.
Cut the minion fillets into collops, and quickly toss them in butter with an equal quantity of mushrooms and five oz. of raw, sliced truffles.
Swill the saucepan with a little brandy and the poaching-liquor of the fillet-rings; add a little poivrade sauce; finish this sauce with butter, and plunge therein the collops of fillet, the mushrooms, and the truffles.
Set the rings in a circle on a dish, and fill them with this garnish. Serve separately a sauceboat of poivrade sauce and a timbale of chestnut purée.
[1819—MOUSSES ET MOUSSELINES DE LIÈVRE]
Proceed exactly as for all other [mousses] and [mousselines], except, of course, in regard to the basic ingredient, which in this case is the meat of a hare.