Tame and even wild rabbits are extremely useful in cooking, though very
little used for flancs; they may be served with propriety in the ways I
have here described, particularly in the country, where they are so
plentiful, and your resources frequently so limited.
Skin and truss two young rabbits as for roasting, then put two ounces of
butter in a flat stewpan, (large enough to contain the rabbits,) cut
half a pound of mild lean ham into large dice, put them into the
stewpan, with the butter, and fry them gently ten minutes, then put in
the rabbits, put the cover over the stewpan and place it over a slow
fire, turn them round now and then until they take a light-brown colour,
add fifty button onions, which also colour, take out the rabbits, add
two ounces of flour to the ingredients in the stewpan (mix well) and a
quart of white stock; place the stewpan over the fire, keep it stirred
until boiling, put back the rabbits, with a good bunch of parsley,
thyme, bay-leaf, and four cloves; let it simmer, skim off the fat, which
will rise to the top, take out the rabbits, you have previously taken
out the onions with a spoon and deposited them in a clean stewpan, with
the pieces of ham; reduce the sauce to the thickness required, pass it
through a tammie into the stewpan containing the onions and ham, add
twenty heads of mushrooms, dress your rabbits on a dish slantingly, the
heads pointing different ways, sauce over and serve. Finish the sauce
with a liaison of two yolks of eggs mixed with half a gill of cream.