If a hare is old do not roast it, but make soup of it. Wash and soak it in water for an hour, and change the water several times, having made a little slit in the neck to let out the blood. Take out the heart and liver, and scald them. Drain, dry, and truss the hare. Make a force-meat richer and more moist than usual, and add to it the heart and liver minced fine. Soak the bread-crumbs in a little claret before you mix them with the other ingredients. Stuff the body of the hare with this force-meat, and sew it up. Put it on the spit, rub it with butter, and roast it before a brisk fire. For the first half hour baste it with butter; and afterwards with cream, or with milk thickened with beaten yolk of egg. At the last, dredge it lightly with flour. The hare will require about two hours roasting. For sauce, take the drippings of the hare mixed with cream or with claret, and a little lemon-juice, a bit of butter, and some bread-crumbs. Give it a boil up, and send it to table in a boat. Garnish the hare with slices of currant jelly laid round it in the dish.
The true fillet is the tenderloin, although sometimes one will see a rib roast, boned and rolled, called a fillet. A short fillet, weighing from two and a half to three pounds (the average weight from a very large rump), will suffice for ten persons at a dinner where this is served as one course; and if a larger quantity is wanted a great saving will still be made if two short fillets are used. They cost about two dollars, while a large one, weighing the same amount, would cost five dollars, Fillet of beef is one of the simplest, safest and most satisfactory dishes that a lady can prepare for either her own family or guests. After a single trial she will think no more of it than of broiling a beef steak. First, remove from the fillet, with a sharp knife, every shred of muscle, ligament and thin, tough skin. If it is not then of a good round shape, skewer it into shape. Draw a line through the centre, and lard with two rows of pork, having them meet at this line. Dredge well with salt, pepper and flour, and put, without water, in a very small pan. Place in a hot oven for thirty minutes. Let it be in the lower part of the oven the first ten minutes, then place on the upper grate. Serve with mushroom, Hollandaise or tomato sauce, or with potato balls. If with sauce, this should be poured around the fillet, the time given cooks a fillet of any size, the shape being such that it will take half an hour for either two or six pounds. Save the fat trimmed from the fillet for frying, and the lean part for soup stock.
Singe off all the small feathers; cut off neck and wings, which may be used for soup; wash thoroughly and rub well with salt, ginger and a little pepper, inside and out. Now prepare this dressing: Take the liver, gizzard and heart and chop to a powder in chopping bowl. Grate in a little nutmeg, add a piece of celery root and half an onion. Put all this into your chopping bowl. Soak some stale bread, squeeze out all the water and fry in a spider of hot fat. Toss this soaked bread into the bowl; add one egg, salt, pepper and a speck of ginger and mix all thoroughly. Fill the duck with this and sew it up. Lay in the roasting-pan with slices of onions, celery and specks of fat. Put some on top of fowl; roast two hours, covered up tight and baste often. Stick a fork into the skin from time to time so that the fat will try out.
