Rabbit Soup

Ingredients

• 2 large rabbits, or 3 small ones
• a faggot of savoury herbs
• 1/2 head celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 blade mace
• salt and white pepper to taste
• a little pounded mace
• 1/2 pint cream
• the yolks of 2 eggs boiled hard
• the crumb of a French roll
• nearly 3 quarts of water

Instructions

1. Make the soup with the legs and shoulders of the rabbit, and keep the nice pieces for a dish or _entrée_.
2. Put them into warm water, and draw the blood;
3. when quite clean, put them in a stewpan, with a faggot of herbs, and a teacupful, or rather more, of veal stock or water.
4. Simmer slowly till done through, and add the 3 quarts of water, and boil for an hour.
5. Take out the rabbet, pick the meat from the bones, covering it up to keep it white;
6. put the bones back in the liquor, add the vegetables, and simmer for 2 hours;
7. skim and strain, and let it cool.
8. Now pound the meat in a mortar, with the yolks of the eggs, and the crumb of the roll previously soaked;
9. rub it through a tammy, and gradually add it to the strained liquor, and simmer for 15 minutes.
10. Mix arrowroot or rice-flour with the cream (say 2 dessert-spoonfuls), and stir in the soup; bring it to a boil, and serve.
11. This soup must be very white, and instead of thickening it with arrowroot or rice-flour, vermicelli or pearl barley can be boiled in a little stock, and put in 5 minutes before serving.