Superlative Hare Soup

Ingredients

• 1 hare
• 12 to 16 oz lean ham
• 3 mild onions
• 3 blades of mace
• faggot of thyme, sweet marjoram, and parsley
• 3 quarts good beef stock
• 2 French rolls
• 1/2 pint port wine
• to taste salt
• to taste cayenne

Instructions

1. Cut the hare into joints.
2. Put the hare joints, ham slices, onions, mace, and herb faggot into a large soup-pot or stewpan with the beef stock.
3. Let it stew very gently for at least two hours from the time it first boils (longer if the hare is old).
4. Strain the soup through a sieve.
5. Pound together very fine the ham slices and all the flesh from the back, legs, and shoulders of the hare until well broken down.
6. Put the pounded meat into a stewpan with the cooking liquor, the crumb of two French rolls, and the port wine.
7. Set on the stove to simmer for twenty minutes.
8. Rub the soup through a sieve to make it smooth.
9. Place it again on the stove until very hot, but do not let it boil.
10. Season with salt and cayenne and send to table directly.