Baked.—To bake it, it may be larded or not, according to taste. When cleaned and prepared as directed for game, place the rabbit in a baking-pan, with a few slices of onion and carrot; salt, pepper, and butter it; cover the bottom of the pan with cold water and set it in a quick oven. After ten or fifteen minutes, turn the rabbit over, baste and cover it with a piece of buttered paper. Continue basting till done. When about half done, if the water and juice are boiling away or absorbed, add more water or broth, and when done turn the gravy over the rabbit through a strainer, and serve with water-cress and a few drops of lemon-juice or vinegar.
It is also served with a cranberry, fines herbes, mushroom, piquante, ravigote, tomato, and truffle sauce.
In Chartreuse.—A rabbit is prepared in chartreuse the same as a prairie-chicken; the only difference is, that it requires a larger mould; the rest of the process is the same.
In Civet, or stewed.—Cut the rabbit in pieces, and fry them with a little butter till turning rather brown, when add half a pound of lean salt pork cut in dice; stir and fry two or three minutes, stir in also a tablespoonful of flour; one minute after add a half pint of broth, same of claret wine, salt, twelve small onions, and a bunch of seasonings, composed of three or four sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, a clove of garlic, one clove. Boil gently till done; throw away the bunch of seasonings, and serve warm. In case it is not handy to use claret wine, use a gill of Madeira, or Port, or Sherry wine, and one gill of water. Without wine at all it makes an inferior dish.
A civet made three or four days in advance, and warmed in a bain-marie for ten minutes, once every day, is better than if eaten as soon as made.
In case the sauce is becoming too thick, after warming the rabbit several times, add a little broth, and also a little butter; stir gently, and always serve as warm as possible.
In Crapaudine.—When cleaned and prepared as directed, cook and serve the rabbit as described for pigeon in crapaudine, with the exception that it takes a little longer to cook.
In Croquettes.—What may be left from the preceding day's dinner of a baked, roasted, or stuffed rabbit, may be prepared in croquettes, in the same way as chicken croquettes.
With Currant-Jelly.—A rabbit served with currant-jelly makes a sightly dish, but it requires care and taste. Skin the rabbit carefully, leaving the ears unskinned. Cut the legs at the first joint, then dip the ears in hot (but not boiling) water, and scrape off the hair carefully. Draw it and wash the inside carefully also, putting away the liver, heart, and lungs. Chop fine one middling-sized onion, and fry it with about one ounce of butter; then add to the onion, and fry them also, the heart, liver, and lungs of the rabbit, after being chopped fine, when add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg grated, and a piece of clove also grated. Stir for about one minute, take from the fire, mix with it two yolks of eggs and one ounce of butter. Fill the rabbit with the mixture, sew up the incision made to draw it, and then truss it in the following way: Put the rabbit on the paste-board so that it appears as if it were resting, lying on its belly. Skewer the ears so that they seem to be naturally bent on the back of the neck. With a trussing-needle fasten the forelegs so that they look also as if naturally bent by the animal when at rest. Roast or bake it, and serve it with the gravy and currant or raspberry jelly.
It is placed on the dish lying on its belly, the skewers and twine are removed, and a few sprigs of parsley are placed in its mouth. The currant-jelly may be served in a saucer and the gravy in another.