Rabbits.—(No. 17.)
Truss your rabbits short, lay them in a basin of warm water for ten minutes, then put them into plenty of water, and boil them about half an hour; if large ones, three quarters; if very old, an hour: smother them with plenty of white onion sauce ([No. 298]), mince the liver, and lay it round the dish, or make liver sauce ([No. 287]), and send it up in a boat.
Obs. Ask those you are going to make liver sauce for, if they like plain liver sauce, or liver and parsley, or liver and lemon sauce (Nos. [287] and [288]).
N.B. It will save much trouble to the carver, if the rabbits be cut up in the kitchen into pieces fit to help at table, and the head divided, one-half laid at each end, and slices of lemon and the liver, chopped very finely, laid on the sides of the dish.
At all events, cut off the head before you send it to table, we hardly remember that the thing ever lived if we don’t see the head, while it may excite ugly ideas to see it cut up in an attitude imitative of life; besides, for the preservation of the head, the poor animal sometimes suffers a slower death.
Tripe.—(No. 18.)
Take care to have fresh tripe; cleanse it well from the fat, and cut it into pieces about two inches broad and four long; put it into a stew-pan, and cover it with milk and water, and let it boil gently till it is tender.
If the tripe has been prepared as it usually is at the tripe shops, it will be enough in about an hour, (this depends upon how long it has been previously boiled at the tripe shop); if entirely undressed, it will require two or three hours, according to the age and quality of it.
Make some onion sauce in the same manner as you do for rabbits ([No. 298]), or boil (slowly by themselves) some Spanish or the whitest common onions you can get; peel them before you boil them; when they are tender, which a middling-sized onion will be in about three-quarters of an hour, drain them in a hair-sieve, take off the top skins till they look nice and white, and put them with the tripe into a tureen or soup-dish, and take off the fat if any floats on the surface.
Obs. Rashers of bacon (Nos. [526] and [527]), or fried sausages ([No. 87]), are a very good accompaniment to boiled tripe, cow-heels ([No. 198]), or calf’s feet, see Mr. Mich. Kelly’s sauce ([No. 311*]), or parsley and butter ([No. 261]), or caper sauce ([No. 274]), with a little vinegar and mustard added to them, or salad mixture ([No. 372] or [453]).