POTTED HARE.
Wedgwood Pestle and Mortar.
The back of a well-roasted hare, and such other parts of the flesh as are not sinewy, if potted by the directions already given for ham and other meat, will be found superior to the game prepared as it usually is by baking it tender either with a large quantity of butter, or with barely sufficient water or gravy to cover it; but when the old-fashioned mode of potting is preferred, it must be cleansed as for roasting, wiped dry, cut into joints, which, after being seasoned with salt, cayenne (or pepper), and pounded cloves and mace or nutmeg well mingled, should be closely packed in a jar or deep pan, and slowly baked until very tender, with the addition of from half to a whole pound of fresh butter laid equally over it, in small bits, or with only so much water or other liquid as will prevent its becoming hard: the jar must be well covered with at least two separate folds of thick brown paper tied closely over it. It should then be left to become perfectly cold; and the butter (when it has been used) should be taken off and scraped free from moisture, that it may be added to the hare in pounding it. All skin and sinew must be carefully removed, and the flesh minced before it is put into the mortar. Additional seasoning must be added if necessary; but the cook must remember that all should be well blended, and no particular spice should be allowed to predominate in the flavour of the preparation When water or gravy has been added to the hare, firm fresh butter should be used in potting it: it will not require a very large proportion, as the flesh will be far less dry and firm than when it is roasted, though more of its juices will have been withdrawn from it; and it will not remain good so long. The bones, gravy, head, and ribs, will make a small tureen of excellent soup. Thick slices of lean ham are sometimes baked with the hare, and pounded with it.
308 CHAPTER XVII.
Vegetables.
The quality of vegetables depends much both on the soil in which they are grown, and on the degree of care bestowed upon their culture; but if produced in ever so great perfection, their excellence will be entirely destroyed if they be badly cooked.
With the exception of artichokes, which are said to be improved by two or three days’ keeping, all the summer varieties should be dressed before their first freshness has in any degree passed off (for their flavour is never so fine as within a few hours of their being cut or gathered); but when this cannot be done, precaution should be taken to prevent their withering. The stalk-ends of asparagus, cucumbers, and vegetable-marrow, should be placed in from one to two inches of cold water; and all other kinds should be spread on a cool brick floor. When this has been neglected, they must be thrown into cold water for some time before they are boiled to recover them, though they will prove even then but very inferior eating.
Vegetables when not sufficiently cooked are known to be so exceedingly unwholesome and indigestible, that the custom of serving them crisp, which means, in reality, only half-boiled, should be altogether disregarded when health is considered of more importance than fashion; but they should not be allowed to remain in the water 309after they are quite done, or both their nutritive properties and their flavour will be lost, and their good appearance destroyed. Care should be taken to drain them thoroughly in a warm strainer, and to serve them very hot, with well-made sauces, if with any.
Only dried peas or beans, Jerusalem artichokes, and potatoes, are put at first into cold water. All others require plenty of fast-boiling water, which should be ready salted and skimmed before they are thrown into it.