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 the size of walnuts, and fry these in a stewpan; then add the pieces of hare, and fry those also with the bacon; add a handful of mushrooms, two bay-leaves, some thyme, basil and winter savory, two cloves of garlic, twenty cloves, three blades of mace, a teaspoonful of black peppercorns, a tablespoonful of salt, a pint of madeira, and a pinch of cayenne; put the lid on, and set all this 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 is to be removed from the bones, chopped, pounded; all the grease and bacon added and pounded again' into a smooth pulp, and 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 should be added. Fill some ordinary preserving pie-pans with the preparation, cover them over with common flour-and-water paste, set the pans thus far prepared in deep sautapans, or baking-sheets with a little water at the bottom; and put them to bake in an oven of moderate heat for about one hour; they must then be taken out, the meat pressed down level with a spoon; some clarified butter or lard poured over the top in sufficient quantity to cover in the meat; and as soon as they are become cold, let the pans be covered over with strong white papers moistened on one side with whites 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.

Note.—Any kind of game or other meats, treated in this manner, will keep good for months.