COOKERY OF THE HARE 245 



cmply the conlcnls of the sautc-\yA\\ iiiLo a mortar, 

 pounding and passing the whole through a wire sieve. 

 The puree thus obtained, seasoned with salt and 

 pepper, should be stirred into a bowl with the usual 

 six ounces of breadcrumb, minced or powdered herbs, 

 zest of lemon, two ounces of butter and two eggs. 

 Before packing the hare with this, line the inside with 

 thin strips of cooked streaky bacon. Truss in the old- 

 fashioned way, lengthwise. The sitting posture so 

 often adopted is most inconvenient for the carver, 

 and when one thigh is detached the hare rolls over 

 upon its side — a wreck. 



Everybody knows the standard dishes which have 

 been associated with the name of the hare for 

 upwards of a century : roast hare, the civet de lievre^ 

 jugged hare, hare en daube, hare soups of sorts, 

 and so on. Of these, perhaps the first has always 

 been the least esteemed. Have not some undoubt- 

 edly good authorities declared that the hare was 

 invented for soup or for the stew pan, and that it is 

 but lost labour to roast the animal ? With sundry 

 sad experiences, such as most of us have had, of 

 results almost as dry as ' the back of an old Latin 

 grammar,' or the parched meat used by travellers in 

 Persia — meat that you can snap like a biscuit — of 

 stuffing of sodden, tasteless bread, and of general 



