Lièvre Farci à la Perigourdine

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •7 to 8 quart close-fitting oval cocotte or deep covered roasting pan
• •Larding needle, or a long narrow metal skewer and slim paring knife
• •Trussing needle and unwaxed kitchen twine, or metal poultry lacers
• •Fine-mesh sieve and fat separator
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Long warmed serving platter and sauceboat

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the hare

   Keep the hare, blood, and offal below 40°F (4°C) while you work. Inspect the cavity and flesh carefully, removing stray bone fragments and, if the hare was field-shot, every trace of shot and damaged tissue. Ask the butcher to crack the leg bones cleanly without cutting through the skin; don't strike them at home, where splintered bone is more likely than elegant trussing. Whisk the blood until smooth and pass it through a fine sieve if small clots remain. Use blood and offal only from an inspected animal handled under continuous refrigeration.

2. 2

   Cool onion and bread

   Melt the butter over gentle heat and cook the onion until completely tender and translucent, about 8 minutes, without letting it color. Spread it on a plate and cool it fully. Soak the breadcrumbs briefly in cold water, then squeeze them very firmly in a clean cloth and weigh out 5 oz (140 g). The onion and bread must be cold before they meet the blood and offal; warmth loosens the stuffing before it has any chance to bind.

3. 3

   Lard the lean meat

   Chill the fatback until firm. Working along the grain of each saddle fillet and leg muscle, make narrow channels with a larding needle or long metal skewer, then pull or guide the fatback strips through so small veins of fat run inside the meat every inch or so. Don't carve wide pockets, which let the juices escape. If a strip breaks, insert two shorter pieces from opposite ends; the protection matters, not an uninterrupted ribbon.

   Cold fatback slides cleanly. If it begins smearing under your fingers, return it and the hare to the refrigerator for ten minutes before continuing.
4. 4

   Mix the stuffing

   Chop the hare liver, heart, lungs, chicken livers, and fat bacon together with a knife until they form a close, slightly textured mince, not a smooth paste. Mix in the pressed breadcrumbs, blood, cooled onion, parsley, garlic, truffle parings, 1¾ teaspoons of the salt, and ¾ teaspoon of the pepper. Work only until the mixture becomes cohesive. Fry a teaspoonful in a dry pan until cooked through, taste, and correct it with some of the reserved seasoning. If the stuffing slumps like batter, don't add extra bread and disturb the book's ratio. Chill it for 15 minutes; ça se rattrape.

5. 5

   Fill and truss

   Lay the hare belly-up and fill the cavity evenly, pressing the stuffing into the shoulders and pelvis without packing it hard. Draw the belly skin together and sew it with a trussing needle and kitchen twine, using close stitches. If the skin tears, bridge the opening with two short metal skewers and lace the twine around them in a figure eight. Fold the legs into a compact natural crouch, then truss the body firmly enough to hold its long shape. Season the outside with the remaining salt and pepper.

6. 6

   Braise and baste

   Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Set the hare seam-side up in a close-fitting oval cocotte or deep covered roasting pan and pour the white wine around it; the liquid should reach roughly one-third of the way up the animal. Bring the wine only to a tremble on the stove, cover with parchment and the lid, then braise for about 2½ hours. Baste every 20 minutes, spooning the wine over the saddle and legs before covering the pot again. That frequent basting is not brigade fussing, it is the dish's defense against dry game. Keep the liquor at a bare simmer. If it begins boiling hard, lower the oven by 25°F (15°C); if the level falls below the pot floor, add ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g) hot water at a time. The hare is ready when a skewer enters the hind leg without resistance and the center of the stuffing reaches at least 165°F (74°C).

7. 7

   Reduce the sauce

   Lift the hare carefully onto a rimmed tray and cover it loosely. Pour the braising liquor into a saucepan, add the prepared half-glaze game sauce, and boil steadily until the sauce is nappant, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon while still running freely. Clear it of grease as it reduces, using a shallow spoon or fat separator, then pass it through a fine sieve. Reserve 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of the clear reduction for glazing. If the sauce becomes too salty before it coats, add ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g) hot water and reduce more gently; if it tightens too far, loosen it one spoonful at a time.

8. 8

   Glaze at the last

   Raise the oven to 450°F (230°C). Brush the hare with the reserved reduction and return it uncovered for 6 to 10 minutes, brushing once or twice more, until the surface is evenly glossy and mahogany-bronze. Watch closely because a reduced glaze moves from lacquered to scorched quickly. While the hare glazes, stir the chopped Périgord truffle into the remaining sauce over low heat and warm it for 2 minutes without a hard boil; the truffle belongs in the finished sauce, not cooked into silence.

9. 9

   Sauce and serve

   Remove the twine and set the whole hare on a warmed long platter. Spoon only enough truffle sauce around it to gloss the platter without concealing the hare, then pour the rest into a warmed sauceboat. Present it whole, carve the legs and saddle at the table, and serve each portion with a generous spoonful of the dark stuffing and more sauce. Never apologize at your own table. À table!

Chef Tips

• •This recipe begins at the butcher's counter. Order a 4 to 5 lb (1.8 to 2.3 kg) hare from a licensed game dealer and specify that you need the blood, liver, heart, and lungs reserved. Ask the butcher to remove the main tendons and crack the leg bones cleanly for trussing.
• •Where the sale of hare lungs is prohibited, replace their weight with additional chicken liver. If hare blood cannot be supplied, food-safe pig's blood preserves the binding and mineral depth, though its flavor is less particular. Don't omit both blood and offal; together they are the stuffing's foundation.
• •The recipe requires 6 oz (170 g) of genuine Périgord black truffle in all. Fresh is best; excellent frozen whole black truffle can serve for the parings inside the stuffing, but keep fresh truffle for the finished sauce when possible. Truffle oil cannot do this work. If neither fresh nor excellent frozen truffle is available, choose another hare preparation.
• •The half-glaze game sauce is the finished component the old sauce station kept ready. Prepare it ahead or buy a concentrated, unsalted version from a serious game butcher. Boxed beef broth lacks the gelatin and depth to survive this reduction.
• •Pour a mature Bergerac or Cahors alongside. The wine needs enough structure for blood, offal, and truffle, but not so much oak that the sauce disappears behind it.

Advance Preparation

• •Acquire or prepare the half-glaze game sauce up to three days ahead and keep it refrigerated, or freeze it well in advance. It must be a finished component before the hare enters the oven.
• •The onion and pressed breadcrumbs can be prepared up to six hours ahead. Keep them covered and cold, along with the cleaned offal, blood, fatback, and truffles.
• •To divide the work, braise the hare one day ahead, cool it quickly in its liquor, and refrigerate both together. Reheat it covered at 300°F (150°C) until the stuffing reaches 165°F (74°C), then reduce the sauce and perform the final glaze immediately before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 560g)