356. Hare Soup A L'Anglaise

Skin and paunch a hare, and cut it up as follows :-first take off the legs close to the loins, and divide them into three pieces, slip the shoulders off and cut them into two parts, cut the back into six pieces, and divide the head in halves. Next place a stewpan on the stove-fire, containing four ounces of butter, a carrot, two onions, a head of celery cut into small slices, and fry these of a light color; then add the pieces of hare, over which, when also fried brown, shake a good handful of flour, and moisten with half a bottle of Port wine, at the same time adding a garnished bouquet, three cloves, a blade of mace, and two quarts of blond of veal; stir the whole on the fire until it boils, then take it off and set it by the side to boil gently for an hour and a quarter, taking care in the meantime to skim off the butter, etc, as it rises to the surface. Take out the pieces of hare when done, from the sauce, and place them on a dish; select the finest pieces of meat, remove the bones, and set these pieces aside in a soup-pot; clear the remainder of the meat from the bones, and pound it thoroughly, with the vegetables, from the sauce; when these are pounded, mix them again with the sauce, and pass the whole through a tammy into a puree, and pour it on to the pieces of hare reserved in the soup-pot.

Observe, that this soup must not be thick, consequently it may be necessary after passing it through the tammy to add a little blond of veal to thin it.

Just before sending it to table, make the soup hot, but be careful that it does not boil; ascertain that its seasoning be palatable, and serve.

357. Hare Soup A La St. George

Get two good-sized leverets and fillet them. Place the fillets in a small sauta-pan with a little fresh butter, pepper, and salt; cover them with a round of buttered paper, and put them in the larder till dinner-time. Reserve a sufficient quantity of the meat from the leveret's hind-quarters, in order to make some quenelles; cut the remainder into small pieces, and fry them exactly in the same manner as directed in the preceding soup; shake into them a sufficient quantity of flour to thicken the sauce of the soup, moisten with a bottle of Claret, and two quarts of blond of veal; add a garnished bouquet made with basil, marjoram, parsley, bay-leaf, and thyme, four cloves, mace, and four shalots. Let the sauce boil, skim it well, and when the hare is thoroughly done, pass the sauce through a tammy into a soup-pot; put this on the fire to throw off any remaining roughness, and that it may be reduced if necessary ; and then pour it into the soap-tureen, which should contain three dozen small quenelles made with the meat reserved for that purpose, as before mentioned ; also the scollops of hare prepared by lightly frying the fillets in the sauta-pan, and which must be afterward scolloped. Ascertain that the seasoning be correct, and send to table.

358. Leveret Soup A La Rossie

Get a good-sized leveret, cut it into pieces, and fry these in a stew-pan with two ounces of butter; as soon as they are colored, moisten with half a bottle of Sherry, allow the wine to boil, then add two quarts ot consomme or blond of veal, garnish with carot, onion, and celery, mace, cloves, and peppercorns, a bouquet of bay-leaf, thyme, basil, marjoram, and winter savory; let these herbs be used in small quantities, in order that they may give flavor, without predominating. When the soup has boiled three-quarters of an hour, let the pieces of hare be drained on a sieve, and at the same time pass the broth into a basin ; afterward place the pieces of hare on a napkin, and when neatly trimmed, put them into a soup-pot.

Next, clarify the consomme in the usual manner, and strain it through a napkin on to the pieces of leveret; and, just before sending to table, add to the soup three dozen very small quenelles of leveret, and some white celery cut into shreds and boiled in a small quantity of the soup.