From:
The Thorough Good Cook
Entrees: 20. Potted Hare
Cut up the
hare into joints or pieces, and set them aside on a
plate; next, cut up two pounds of streaky
bacon into square pieces about the size of
walnuts, and fry these in a
stew-
pan; add the pieces of hare, and fry them with the bacon; and also a handful of
mushrooms, two
bay-leaves, some
thyme,
basil, and winter
savoury, two cloves of
garlic, twenty
cloves, three
blades of
mace, a teaspoonful of black peppercorns, a tablespoonful of
salt, a pint of
sherry (strict abstainers may leave out the
wine), and a pinch of Nepaul; put on the lid, and set all to
simmer very gently in the
oven for an hour and a half. The hare must then be strained from its
liquor; all the meat removed from the bones, chopped, and pounded; all the
grease and bacon added and the whole pounded into a smooth
pulp, then rubbed through a wire-sieve on to a
dish, and afterwards put into a large kitchen pan to be mixed up with the liquor from the hare. If the liquor or stock from the hare measures more than a pint, it should be boiled down to that quantity, and about four ounces of good
glaze added. Fill some ordinary preserving pie pans with the preparation, cover them over with common
flour and water
paste; set the pans in deep
sauté-pans, or baking-sheets, with a little water at the bottom, and put them to
bake in an oven of moderate heat for about an hour. They must now be taken out, the meat pressed down level with a
spoon, and some
clarified butter or
lard poured over the top in sufficient quantity to cover the meat. As soon as they become cold, let the pans be covered with strong white paper, moistened on one side with white of
egg; and when perfectly dry, oil the surface of the paper over with a brush and put the potted hare in a very cool place, to be kept for use as
occasion requires.