Chapter VIII.) rolled into small balls, and simmered for ten minutes in

the stew, or fried and added to it after it is dished; a higher seasoning of spice, a couple of glasses of port wine, with a little additional thickening and a tablespoonful of lemon-juice, will all serve to give it a heightened relish. Hare, 1; lean of ham or bacon, 4 to 6 oz.; butter, 2 oz.; gravy, 1-1/2 pint; lemon-rind: 1 hour and 20 to 50 minutes. Rice-flour, 1 large dessertspoonful; mushroom catsup, 2 tablespoonsful; mace, 1/3 of teaspoonful; little cayenne (salt, if needed): 10 minutes. TO ROAST A RABBIT. [Illustration: Rabbit for roasting. ] This, like a hare, is much improved by having the back-bone taken out, and the directions we have given will enable the cook, with very little practice, to remove it without difficulty. Line the inside, when this is done, with thin slices of bacon, fill it with forcemeat (No. 1, Chapter VIII), sew it up, truss, and roast it at a clear, brisk fire, and baste it constantly with butter. Flour it well soon after it is laid down. Serve it with good brown gravy, and with currant jelly, when this last is liked. For change, the back of the rabbit may be larded, and the bone left in, or not, at pleasure; or it can be plain roasted when more convenient. 3/4 to 1 hour; less, if small. TO BOIL RABBITS. [Illustration: Rabbit for boiling. ] Rabbits that are three parts grown, or, at all events, which are still quite young, should be chosen for this mode of cooking. Wash them well, truss them firmly, with the heads turned and skewered to the sides, drop them into sufficient boiling water to keep them quite covered until they are cooked, and simmer them gently from thirty to forty-five minutes: when _very_ young they will require even less time than this. Cover them with rich white sauce, mixed with the livers parboiled, finely pounded, and well seasoned with cayenne and lemon-juice; or with white onion sauce, or with parsley and butter, made with milk or cream instead of water (the livers, minced, are often added to the last of these), or with good mushroom sauce. 30 to 45 minutes. FRIED RABBIT. After the rabbit has been emptied, thoroughly washed and soaked, should it require it to remove any mustiness of smell, blanch it, that is to say, put it into boiling water and let it boil from five to seven minutes; drain it, and when cold or nearly so, cut it into joints, dip them into beaten egg, and then into fine bread-crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper, and when all are ready, fry them in butter over a moderate fire, from twelve to fifteen minutes. Simmer two or three strips of lemon-rind in a little gravy, until it is well flavoured with it; boil the liver of the rabbit for five minutes, let it cool, and then mince it; thicken the gravy with an ounce of butter and a small teaspoonful of flour, add the liver, give the sauce a minute’s boil, stir in two tablespoonsful of cream if at hand, and last of all, a small quantity of lemon-juice. Dish the rabbit, pour the sauce _under_ it, and serve it quickly. If preferred, a gravy can be made in the pan as for veal cutlets, and the rabbit may be simply fried. TO ROAST A PHEASANT. [In season from the beginning of October to the end of January. The licensed term of pheasant shooting commences on the 1st of October, and terminates on the 2nd of February, but as the birds will remain perfectly good in cold weather for two or three weeks, if from that time hung in a well-ventilated larder, they continue, correctly speaking, _in season_ so long as they can be preserved fit for table after the regular market for them is closed: the same rule applies equally to other varieties of game.] [Illustration: Pheasant trussed without the head. ] Unless kept to the proper point, a pheasant is one of the most tough, dry, and flavourless birds that is sent to table; but when it has hung as many days as it can without becoming really tainted, and is well roasted and served, it is most excellent eating. Pluck off the feathers carefully, cut a slit in the back of the neck to remove the crop, then draw the bird in the usual way, and either wipe the inside very clean with a damp cloth, or pour water through it; wipe the outside also, but with a dry cloth; cut off the toes, turn the head of the bird _under_ the wing, with the bill laid straight along the breast, skewer the legs, which must not be crossed, flour the pheasant well, lay it to a brisk fire, and baste it constantly and plentifully with well flavoured butter. Send bread-sauce and good brown gravy to table with it. The entire breast of the bird may be larded by the directions of Chapter IX When a brace is served, one is sometimes larded, and the other not; but a much handsomer appearance is given to the dish by larding both. About three quarters of an hour will roast them. 3/4 hour; a few minutes less, if liked very much underdone; five or ten more for _thorough_ roasting, with a _good_ fire in both cases. BOUDIN OF PHEASANT À LA RICHELIEU. (ENTRÉE.) Take, quite clear from the bones, and from all skin and sinew, the flesh of a half-roasted pheasant; mince, and then pound it to the smoothest paste; add an equal bulk of the floury part of some fine roasted potatoes, or of such as have been boiled by Captain Kater’s receipt (see