CHAPTER XVI.

=Curries, Potted Meats, &c.= [Illustration] THE great superiority of the oriental curries over those generally prepared in England is not, we believe, altogether the result of a want of skill or of experience on the part of our cooks, but is attributable in some measure, to many of the ingredients, which in a _fresh and green state_ add so much to their excellence, being here beyond our reach. With us, turmeric and cayenne pepper prevail in them often far too powerfully: the prodigal use of the former should be especially avoided, as it injures both the quality and the _colour_ of the currie, which ought to be of a dark green, rather than of a red or yellow hue. A couple of ounces of a sweet, sound cocoa-nut, lightly grated and stewed for nearly or quite an hour in the gravy of a currie, is a great improvement to its flavour: it will be found particularly agreeable with that of sweetbreads, and may be served in the currie, or strained from it at pleasure. Great care however, should be taken not to use, for the purpose, a nut that is rancid. Spinach, cucumbers, vegetable marrow, tomatas, acid apples, green gooseberries (seeded), and tamarinds imported _in the shell_—not preserved—may all, in their season, be added, with very good effect, to curries of different kinds. Potatoes and celery are also occasionally boiled down in them. The rice for a currie should always be sent to table in a separate dish from it, and in serving them, it should be first helped, and the currie laid upon it. MR. ARNOTT’S CURRIE-POWDER. Turmeric, eight ounces.[95] Coriander seed, four ounces. Cummin seed, two ounces. Fœnugreek seed, two ounces. Cayenne, half an ounce. (More or less of this last to the taste.) Footnote 95: We think it would be an improvement to diminish by two ounces the proportion of turmeric, and to increase that of the coriander seed; but we have not tried it. Let the seeds be of the finest quality. Dry them well, pound, and sift them separately through a lawn sieve, then weigh, and mix them in the above proportions. This is an exceedingly agreeable and aromatic powder, when all the ingredients are perfectly fresh and good, but the preparing is rather a troublesome process. Mr. Arnott recommends that when it is considered so, a “high-caste” chemist should be applied to for it. MR. ARNOTT’S CURRIE. “Take the heart of a cabbage, and nothing but the heart, that is to say, pull away all the outside leaves until it is about the size of an egg; chop it fine, add to it a couple of apples sliced thin, the juice of one lemon, half a teaspoonful of black pepper, with one large tablespoonful of _my_ currie-powder, and mix the whole well together. Now take six onions that have been chopped fine and fried brown, a garlic head, the size of a nutmeg, also minced fine, two ounces of fresh butter, two tablespoonsful of flour, and one pint of strong mutton or beef gravy; and when these articles are boiling, add the former ingredients, and let the whole be well stewed up together: if not hot enough, add cayenne pepper. Next put in a fowl that has been roasted and nicely cut up; or a rabbit; or some lean chops of pork or mutton; or a lobster, or the remains of yesterday’s calf’s head; or anything else you may fancy; and you will have an excellent currie, fit for kings to partake of. “Well! now for the rice! It should be put into water which should be frequently changed, and should remain in for half an hour at least; this both clears and soaks it. Have your saucepan full of water (the larger the better), and when it boils rapidly, throw the rice into it: it will be done in fifteen minutes. Strain it into a dish, wipe the saucepan dry, return the drained rice into it, and put it over a gentle fire for a few minutes, with a cloth over it: every grain will be separate. When served, do not cover the dish.” _Obs._—We have already given testimony to the excellence of Mr. Arnott’s currie-powder, but we think the currie itself will be found somewhat too acid for English taste in general, and the proportion of onion and garlic by one half too much for any but well seasoned Anglo-Indian palates. After having tried his method of boiling the rice, we still give the preference to that of Chapter I., page 36. A BENGAL CURRIE. Slice and fry three large onions in two ounces of butter, and lift them out of the pan when done. Put into a stewpan three other large onions and a small clove of garlic which have been pounded together, and smoothly mixed with a dessertspoonful of the best pale turmeric, a teaspoonful of powdered ginger, one of salt, and one of cayenne pepper; add to these the butter in which the onions were fried, and half a cupful of good gravy; let them stew for about ten minutes, taking care that they shall not burn. Next, stir to them the fried onions and half a pint more of gravy; add a pound and a half of mutton, or of any other meat, free from bone and fat, and simmer it gently for an hour, or more should it not then be perfectly tender. Fried onions, 3 large; butter, 2 oz.; onions pounded, 3 large; garlic, 1 clove; turmeric, 1 dessertspoonful; powdered ginger, salt, cayenne, each 1 teaspoonful; gravy, 1/2 cupful: 10 minutes. Gravy 1/2 pint; meat, 1-1/2 lb.: 1 hour or more. A DRY CURRIE. Skin and cut down a fowl into small joints, or a couple of pounds of mutton, free from fat and bone, into very small thick cutlets; rub them with as much currie-powder, mixed with a teaspoonful of flour and one of salt, as can be made to adhere to them: this will be from two to three tablespoonsful. Dissolve a good slice of butter in a deep, well-tinned stewpan or saucepan, and shake it over a brisk fire for four or five minutes, or until it begins to take colour; then put in the meat, and brown it well and equally, without allowing a morsel to be scorched. The pan should be shaken vigorously every minute or two, and the meat turned in it frequently. When this is done, lift it out and throw into the stewpan two or three large onions finely minced, and four or five eschalots when these last are liked; add a morsel of butter if needful, and fry them until they begin to soften; then add a quarter of a pint of gravy, broth, or boiling water, and a large acid apple, or two moderate-sized ones, of a good boiling kind, with the hearts of two or three lettuces, or of one hard cabbage, shred quite small (tomatas or cucumbers freed from their seeds can be substituted for these when in season). Stew the whole slowly until it resembles a thick pulp, and add to it any additional liquid that may be required, should it become too dry; put in the meat, and simmer the whole very softly until this is done, which will be in from three quarters of an hour to an hour. Prawns, shrimps, or the flesh of boiled lobsters may be slowly heated through, and served in this currie sauce with good effect. A COMMON INDIAN CURRIE. For each pound of meat, whether veal, mutton, or beef, take a heaped tablespoonful of good currie powder, a small teaspoonful of salt, and one of flour; mix these well together, and after having cut down the meat into thick small cutlets, or dice, rub half of the mixed powder equally over it. Next, fry gently from one to four or five large onions sliced, with or without the addition of a small clove of garlic or half a dozen eschalots, according to the taste; and when they are of a fine golden brown, lift them out with a slice and lay them upon a sieve to drain; throw a little more butter into the pan and fry the meat lightly in it; drain it well from the fat in taking it out, and lay it into a clean stewpan or saucepan; strew the onion over it, and pour in as much boiling water as will almost cover it. Mix the remainder of the currie-powder smoothly with a little broth or cold water, and after the currie has stewed for a few minutes pour it in, shaking the pan well round that it may be smoothly blended with the gravy. Simmer the whole very softly until the meat is perfectly tender: this will be in from an hour and a quarter to two hours and a half, according to the quantity and the nature of the meat. Mutton will be the soonest done; the brisket end (gristles) of a breast of veal will require twice as much stewing, and sometimes more. A fowl will be ready to serve in an hour. An acid apple or two, or any of the vegetables which we have enumerated at the commencement of this chapter, may be added to the currie, proper time being allowed for cooking each variety. Very young green peas are liked by some people in it; and cucumbers pared, seeded, and cut moderately small, are always a good addition. A richer currie will of course be produced if gravy or broth be substituted for the water: either should be boiling when poured to the meat. Lemon-juice should be stirred in before it is served, when there is no other acid in the currie. A dish of boiled rice must be sent to table with it. A couple of pounds of meat free from bone, is sufficient quite for a moderate-sized dish of this kind, but three of the breast of veal are sometimes used for it, when it is to be served to a large family-party of currie-eaters; from half to a whole pound of rice should then accompany it. For the proper mode of boiling it, see page 36. The small grained, or Patna, is the kind which ought to be used for the purpose. Six ounces is sufficient for a not large currie; and a pound, when boiled dry, and heated lightly in a dish, appears an enormous quantity for a modern table. To each pound of meat, whether veal, mutton, or beef, 1 heaped tablespoonful of good currie-powder, 1 small teaspoonful of salt, and a large one of flour, to be well mixed, and half rubbed on to the meat before it is fried, the rest added afterwards; onions fried, from 1 to 4 or 5 (with or without the addition of a clove of garlic, or half a dozen eschalots); sufficient boiling water to nearly cover the meat: vegetables, as in receipt, at choice; stewed, 1-1/4 to 2-1/2 hours: a fowl, 1 hour, or rather less; beef, 2 lbs., 1-1/2 hour, or more; brisket of veal, 2-1/2 to 3 hours. _Obs._—Rabbits make a very good currie when quite young. Cayenne pepper can always be added to heighten the pungency of a currie, when the proportion in the powder is not considered sufficient. SELIM’S CURRIES. (_Captain White’s._) These curries are made with a sort of paste, which is labelled with the above names, and as it has attracted some attention of late, and the curries made with it are very good, and quickly and easily prepared, we give the directions for them. “Cut a pound and a half of chicken, fowl, veal, rabbit, or mutton, into pieces an inch and a half square. Put from two to three ounces of fresh butter in a stewpan, and when it is melted put in the meat, and give it a good stir with a wooden spoon; add from two to three dessertspoonsful of the currie-paste; mix the whole up well together, and continue the stirring over a brisk fire from five to ten minutes, and the currie will be done. This is a dry currie. For a gravy currie, add two or three tablespoonsful of boiling water after the paste is well mixed in, and continue the stewing and stirring from ten to twelve minutes longer, keeping the sauce of the consistency of cream. Prepare salmon and lobster in the same way, but very quickly, that they may come up firm. The paste may be rubbed over steaks, or cutlets, when they are nearly broiled; three or four minutes will finish them.”[96] Footnote 96: Unless the meat be _extremely_ tender, and cut small, it will require from ten to fifteen minutes stewing: when no liquid is added, it must be stirred without intermission, or the paste will burn to the pan. It answers well for cutlets, and for mullagatawny soup also; but makes a very mild currie. CURRIED MACCARONI Boil six ounces of ribband maccaroni for fifteen minutes, in water slightly salted, with a very small bit of butter dissolved in it; drain it perfectly, and then put it into a full pint and a quarter of good beef or veal stock or gravy, previously mixed and boiled for twenty minutes, with a small tablespoonful of fine currie-powder, a teaspoonful of arrow-root, and a little lemon-juice. Heat and toss the maccaroni gently in this until it is well and equally covered with it. A small quantity of rich cream, or a little _béchamel_, will very much improve the sauce, into which it should be stirred just before the maccaroni is added, and the lemon-juice should be thrown in afterwards. This dish is, to our taste, far better without the strong flavouring of onion or garlic, usually given to curries; which can, however, be imparted to the gravy in the usual way, when it is liked. Ribband maccaroni, 6 oz.: 15 to 18 minutes. Gravy, or good beef or veal stock, full pint and 1/4; fine currie-powder, 1 small tablespoonful; arrow-root, 1 teaspoonful; little lemon-juice: 20 minutes. Maccaroni in sauce, 3 to 6 minutes. _Obs._—An ounce or two of grated cocoa-nut, simmered in the gravy for half an hour or more, then strained and well pressed from it, is always an excellent addition. The pipe maccaroni, well curried, is extremely good: the sauce for both kinds should be made with _rich_ gravy, especially when the onion is omitted. A few drops of eschalot-vinegar can be added to it when the flavour is liked. CURRIED EGGS. Boil six or eight fresh eggs quite hard, as for salad, and put them aside until they are cold. Mix well together from two to three ounces of good butter, and from three to four dessertspoonsful of currie-powder; shake them in a stewpan or thick saucepan, over a clear but moderate fire for some minutes, then throw in a couple of mild onions finely minced, and fry them gently until they are tolerably soft: pour to them, by degrees, from half to three quarters of a pint of broth or gravy, and stew them slowly until they are reduced to pulp; mix smoothly a small cup of thick cream with two teaspoonsful of wheaten or of rice-flour, stir them to the currie, and simmer the whole until the raw taste of the thickening is gone. Cut the eggs into half inch slices, heat them quite through in the sauce without boiling them, and serve them as hot as possible. CURRIED SWEETBREADS. Wash and soak them as usual, then throw them into boiling water with a little salt in it, and a whole onion, and let them simmer for ten minutes; or, if at hand, substitute weak veal broth for the water. Lift them out, place them on a drainer, and leave them until they are perfectly cold; then cut them into half-inch slices, and either flour and fry them lightly in butter, or put them, without this, into as much curried gravy as will just cover them; stew them in it very gently, from twenty to thirty minutes; add as much lemon-juice or chili vinegar as will acidulate the sauce agreeably,[97] and serve the currie very hot. As we have already stated in two or three previous receipts, an ounce or more of sweet freshly-grated cocoa-nut, stewed tender in the gravy, and strained from it, before the sweetbreads are added, will give a peculiarly pleasant flavour to all curries. Footnote 97: We find that a small portion of Indian pickled mango, or of its liquor, is an agreeable addition to a currie as well as to mullagatawny soup. Blanched 10 minutes; sliced (fried or not); stewed 20 to 30 minutes. CURRIED OYSTERS. “Let a hundred of large sea-oysters be opened into a basin without losing one drop of their liquor. Put a lump of fresh butter into a good-sized saucepan, and when it boils, add a large onion, cut into thin slices, and let it fry in the uncovered stewpan until it is of a rich brown: now add a bit more butter, and two or three tablespoonsful of currie-powder. When these ingredients are well mixed over the fire with a wooden spoon, add gradually either hot water, or broth from the stock-pot; cover the stewpan, and let the whole boil up. Meanwhile, have ready the meat of a cocoa-nut, grated or rasped fine, put this into the stewpan with a few sour tamarinds (if they are to be obtained, if not, a sour apple, chopped). Let the whole simmer over the fire until the apple is dissolved, and the cocoa-nut very tender; then add a cupful of strong thickening made of flour and water, and sufficient salt, as a currie will not bear being salted at table. Let this boil up for five minutes. Have ready also, a vegetable marrow, or part of one, cut into bits, and sufficiently boiled to require little or no further cooking. Put this in with a tomata or two; either of these vegetables may be omitted. Now put into the stewpan the oysters with their liquor, and the milk of the cocoa-nut, if it be perfectly sweet; stir them well with the former ingredients; let the currie stew gently for a few minutes, then throw in the strained juice of half a lemon. Stir the currie from time to time with a wooden spoon, and as soon as the oysters are done enough serve it up with a corresponding dish of rice on the opposite side of the table. The dish is considered at Madras the _ne plus ultra_ of Indian cookery.”[98] Footnote 98: Native oysters, prepared as for sauce, may be curried by the receipt for eggs or sweetbreads, with the addition of their liquor. We have extracted this receipt, as it stands, from the Magazine of Domestic Economy, the season in which we have met with it not permitting us to have it tested. Such of our readers as may have partaken of the true Oriental preparation, will be able to judge of its correctness; and others may consider it worthy of a trial. We should suppose it necessary to beard the oysters. CURRIED GRAVY. The quantity of onion, eschalot, or garlic used for a currie should be regulated by the taste of the persons for whom it is prepared; the very large proportions of them which are acceptable to some eaters, preventing others altogether from partaking of the dish. Slice, and fry gently in a little good butter, from two to six large onions (with a bit of garlic, and four or five eschalots, or none of either), when they are coloured equally of a fine yellow-brown, lift them on to a sieve reversed to drain; put them into a clean saucepan, add a pint and a half of good gravy, with a couple of ounces of rasped cocoa-nut, or of any of the other condiments we have already specified, which may require as much stewing as the onions (an apple or two, for instance), and simmer them softly from half to three quarters of an hour, or until the onion is sufficiently tender to be pressed through a strainer. We would recommend that for a delicate currie this should always be done; for a common one it is not necessary; and many persons prefer to have the whole of it left in this last. After the gravy has been worked through the strainer, and again boils, add to it from three to four dessertspoonsful of currie-powder, and one of flour, with as much salt as the gravy may require, the whole mixed to a smooth batter with a small cupful of good cream.[99] Simmer it from fifteen to twenty minutes, and it will be ready for use. Lobster, prawns, shrimps, maccaroni, hard-boiled eggs, cold calf’s head, and various other meats may be heated and served in it with advantage. For all of these, and indeed for every kind of currie, acid of some sort should be added. Chili vinegar answers well when no fresh lemon-juice is at hand. Footnote 99: This must be added only just before the currie is dished, when _any acid_ fruit has been boiled in the gravy: it may then be first blended with a small portion of arrow-root, or flour. Onions, 2 to 6 (garlic, 1 clove, or eschalots, 4 to 5, _or neither_); fried a light brown. Gravy, 1-1/2 pint; cocoa-nut, 2 oz. (3, if very young): 1/2 to 3/4 hour. Currie-powder, 3 to 4 dessertspoonsful; flour, 1 dessertspoonful; salt, as needed; cream, 1 small cupful: 15 to 20 minutes. _Obs_.-In India, curds are frequently added to curries, but that may possibly be from their abounding much more than sweet cream in so hot a climate. POTTED MEATS. Any tender and well-roasted meat, taken free of fat, skin, and gristle, as well as from the dry outsides, will answer for potting admirably, better indeed than that which is generally baked for the purpose, and which is usually quite deprived of its juices by the process. Spiced or _corned_ beef also is excellent when thus prepared; and any of these will remain good a long time if mixed with cold fresh butter, instead of that which is clarified; but no addition that can be made to it will render the meat eatable, unless it be _thoroughly pounded_; reduced, in fact, to the smoothest possible paste, free from a single lump or a morsel of unbroken fibre. If _rent_ into fragments, instead of being quite cut through the grain in being minced, before it is put into the mortar, no beating will bring it to the proper state. Unless it be _very_ dry, it is better to pound it for some time before any butter is added, and it must be long and patiently beaten after all the ingredients are mixed, that the whole may be equally blended and well mellowed in flavour. The quantity of butter required will depend upon the nature of the meat; ham and salted beef will need a larger proportion than roast meat, or than the breasts of poultry and game; white fish, from being less dry, will require comparatively little. Salmon, lobsters, prawns, and shrimps are all extremely good, prepared in this way. They should, however, be perfectly fresh when they are pounded, and be set immediately afterwards into a very cool place. For these, and for white meats in general, mace, nutmeg, and cayenne or white pepper, are the appropriate spices. A small quantity of cloves may be added to hare and other brown meat, but allspice we would not recommend unless the taste is known to be in favour of it. The following receipt for pounding ham will serve as a general one for the particular manner of proceeding. POTTED HAM.[100] Footnote 100: See Baked Ham, Chapter XIII., page 258. (_An excellent Receipt._) To be eaten in perfection this should be made with a freshly cured ham, which, after having been soaked for twelve hours, should be wiped dry, nicely trimmed, closely wrapped in coarse paste, and baked very tender. When it comes from the oven, remove the crust and rind, and when the ham is perfectly cold, take for each pound of the lean, which should be weighed after every morsel of skin and fibre has been carefully removed, six ounces of cold roast veal, prepared with equal nicety. Mince these quite fine with an exceedingly sharp knife, taking care to _cut_ through the meat, and not to tear the fibre, as on this much of the excellence of the preparation depends. Next put it into a large stone or marble mortar, and pound it to the smoothest paste with eight ounces of fresh butter, which must be added by degrees. When three parts beaten, strew over it a teaspoonful of freshly-pounded mace, half a large, or the whole of a _small_ nutmeg grated, and the third of a teaspoonful of cayenne well mixed together. It is better to limit the spice to this quantity in the first instance, and to increase afterwards either of the three kinds to the taste of the parties to whom the meat is to be served.[101] We do not find half a teaspoonful of cayenne, and nearly two teaspoonsful of mace, more than is generally approved. After the spice is added, keep the meat often turned from the sides to the middle of the mortar, that it may be seasoned equally in every part. When perfectly pounded, press it into small potting-pans, and pour clarified butter[102] over the top. If kept in a cool and dry place, this meat will remain good for a fortnight, or more. Footnote 101: Spice, it must be observed, varies so very greatly in its quality that discretion is always necessary in using it. Footnote 102: This should never be poured _hot_ on the meat: it should be less than milk-warm when added to it. Lean of ham, 1 lb.; lean of roast veal, 6 oz.; fresh butter, 8 oz.; mace, from 1 to 2 teaspoonsful; 1/2 large nutmeg; cayenne, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoonful. _Obs._—The roast veal is ordered in this receipt because the ham alone is generally too salt; for the same reason butter, fresh taken from the churn, or that which is but slightly salted and quite new, should be used for it in preference to its own fat. When there is no ready-dressed veal in the house, the best part of the neck, roasted or stewed, will supply the requisite quantity. The remains of a cold boiled ham will answer quite well for potting, even when a little dry. POTTED CHICKEN, PARTRIDGE, OR PHEASANT. Roast the birds as for table, but let them be thoroughly done, for if the gravy be left in, the meat will not keep half so well. Raise the flesh of the breast, wings, and merrythought, quite clear from the bones, take off the skin, mince, and then pound it very smoothly with about one third of its weight of fresh butter, or something less, if the meat should appear of a proper consistence without the full quantity; season it with salt, mace, and cayenne only, and add these in small portions until the meat is rather highly flavoured with both the last; proceed with it as with other potted meats. POTTED OX-TONGUE. Boil tender an unsmoked tongue of good flavour, and the following day cut from it the quantity desired for potting, or take for this purpose the remains of one which has already been served at table. Trim off the skin and rind, weigh the meat, mince it very small, then pound it as fine as possible with four ounces of butter to each pound of tongue, a small teaspoonful of mace, half as much of nutmeg and cloves, and a tolerably high seasoning of cayenne. After the spices are well beaten with the meat, taste it, and add more if required. A few ounces of any _well-roasted_ meat mixed with the tongue will give it firmness, in which it is apt to be deficient. The breasts of turkeys, fowls, partridges, or pheasants, may be used for the purpose with good effect. Tongue, 1 lb.; butter, 4 oz.; mace, 1 teaspoonful; nutmeg and cloves each, 1/2 teaspoonful; cayenne, 5 to 10 grains. POTTED ANCHOVIES. Scrape the anchovies very clean, raise the flesh from the bones, and pound it to a perfect paste in a Wedgwood or marble mortar; then with the back of a wooden spoon press it through a hair-sieve reversed. Next, weigh the anchovies, and pound them again with double their weight of the freshest butter that can be procured, a high seasoning of mace and cayenne, and a small quantity of finely-grated nutmeg; set the mixture by in a cool place for three or four hours to harden it before it is put into the potting pans. If butter be poured over, it must be only lukewarm; but the anchovies will keep well for two or three weeks without. A very small portion of rose-pink may be added to improve the colour, but unless it be sparingly used, it will impart a bitter flavour to the preparation. The quantity of butter can be increased or diminished in proportion as it is wished that the flavour of the anchovies should prevail. Anchovies pounded, 3 oz.; butter, 6 oz.; mace, third of teaspoonful; half as much cayenne; little nutmeg. LOBSTER BUTTER. (_For this see_ page 138, Chapter VI.) POTTED SHRIMPS, OR PRAWNS. (_Delicious._) Let the fish be quite freshly boiled, shell them quickly, and just before they are put into the mortar, chop them a little with a very sharp knife; pound them perfectly with a small quantity of fresh butter, mace, and cayenne. (See also page 92.) Shrimps (unshelled), 2 quarts; butter, 2 to 4 oz.; mace, 1 small saltspoonful; cayenne, 1/3 as much. POTTED MUSHROOMS. The receipt for these, which we can recommend to the reader, will be found in the next Chapter. MOULDED POTTED MEAT OR FISH. (_For the second course._) Press very closely and smoothly into a pan or mould the potted ham, or any other meat, of the present chapter, pour a thin layer of clarified butter on the top, and let it become quite cold. When wanted for table, wind round it for a moment a cloth which has been dipped into hot water, loosen the meat gently from it with a thin knife, turn it on to a dish, and glaze it lightly; lay a border of small salad round it, with or without a decoration of hard eggs, or surround it instead with clear savoury jelly cut in dice. The meat, for variety, may be equally sliced, and laid regularly round a pile of small salad. A very elegant second course dish may be made with potted lobsters in this way, the centre being ornamented with a small shape of lobster butter. (_See page_ 138.) POTTED HARE. [Illustration: 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------