Cut down into joints, flour, and fry lightly, two full grown, or three young rabbits; add to them three onions of moderate size, also fried to a clear brown; on these pour gradually seven pints of boiling water, throw in a large teaspoonful of salt, clear off all the scum with care as it rises, and then put to the soup a faggot of parsley, four not very large carrots, and a small teaspoonful of peppercorns; boil the whole very softly from five hours to five and a half; add more salt if needed, strain off the soup, let it cool sufficiently for the fat to be skimmed clean from it, heat it afresh, and send it to table with sippets of fried bread. Spice, with a thickening of rice-flour, or of wheaten flour browned in the oven, and mixed with a spoonful or two of very good mushroom catsup, or of Harvey’s sauce, can be added at pleasure to the above, with a few drops of eschalot-wine, or vinegar; but the simple receipt will be found extremely good without them.
Rabbits, 2 full grown, or 3 small; onions fried, 3 middling-sized; water, 7 pints; salt, 1 large teaspoonful or more; carrots, 4, a faggot of parsley; peppercorns, 1 small teaspoonful: 5 to 5-1/2 hours.
SUPERLATIVE HARE SOUP.
Cut down a hare into joints, and put into a soup-pot, or large stewpan, with about a pound of lean ham, in thick slices, three moderate-sized mild onions, three blades of mace, a faggot of thyme, sweet marjoram, and parsley, and about three quarts of good beef stock. Let it stew very gently for full two hours from the time of its first beginning to boil, and more, if the hare be old. Strain the soup and pound together very fine the slices of ham and all the flesh of the back, legs, and shoulders of the hare, and put this meat into a stewpan with the liquor in which it was boiled, the crumb of two French rolls, and half a pint of port wine. Set it on the stove to simmer twenty minutes; then rub it through a sieve, place it again on the stove till very hot, but do not let it boil: season it with salt and cayenne, and send it to table directly.
Hare, 1; ham, 12 to 16 oz.; onions, 3 to 6; mace, 3 blades; faggot of savoury herbs; beef stock, 3 quarts: 2 hours. Crumb of 2 rolls; port wine, 1/2 pint; little salt and cayenne: 20 minutes.
A LESS EXPENSIVE HARE SOUP.[[33]]
[33]. The remains of a roasted hare, with the forcemeat and gravy, are admirably calculated for making this soup.
Pour on two pounds of neck or shin of beef and a hare well washed and carved into joints, one gallon of cold water, and when it boils and has been thoroughly skimmed, add an ounce and a half of salt, two onions, one large head of celery, three moderate-sized carrots, a teaspoonful of black peppercorns, and six cloves.
Let these stew very gently for three hours, or longer, should the hare not be perfectly tender. Then take up the principal joints, cut the meat from them, mince, and pound it to a fine paste, with the crumb of two penny rolls (or two ounces of the crumb of household bread) which has been soaked in a little of the boiling soup, and then pressed very dry in a cloth; strain, and mix smoothly with it the stock from the remainder of the hare; pass the soup through a strainer, season it with cayenne, and serve it when at the point of boiling; if not sufficiently thick, add to it a tablespoonful of arrow-root moistened with a little cold broth, and let the soup simmer for an instant afterwards. Two or three glasses of port wine, and two dozens of small forcemeat-balls, may be added to this soup with good effect.
Beef, 2 lbs.; hare, 1; water, 1 gallon; salt, 1-1/2 oz.; onions, 2; celery, 1 head; carrots, 3; bunch of savoury herbs; peppercorns, 1 teaspoonful; cloves, 6: 3 hours, or more. Bread, 2 oz.; cayenne, arrow-root (if needed), 1 tablespoonful.