Usagi Amai-Sui (Hare, Sweet and Sour)

Ingredients

• 1 rabbit or hare
• 1 cupful vinegar
• 1 cupful syou sauce
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cupful mirin sauce
• 1 tablespoon mixed spices
• 1/2 pound fat fresh pork
• 1 dozen red plums
• 1 small lime or lemon
• 1 teaspoon Kanton

Instructions

1. Take a small hare or large rabbit that has been hanging for at least two days; after it has been skinned and the insides removed, wash it well in cold water.
2. Cut in quarters and put in a deep dish, covering it well with the vinegar, sugar, salt and so on, mixed with water.
3. Add the spices also, and a quarter of a cupful of mirin sauce.
4. Cover up well and let it pickle in a cool place for two or three days.
5. Remove it from the liquid and cut in small pieces.
6. Have ready the fat pork cut in small pieces, and fry it. Toss in the hare and brown.
7. Have ready a covered China cook dish or casserole, and place in it the hare and pork, adding the syou sauce, a pinch of salt, a pinch of the spices, and the quarter cupful of mirin sauce.
8. Cover up tightly and cook in a slow oven for one hour.
9. Prepare a dozen large red plums, removing the stones, and add them.
10. Dissolve one teaspoonful of Kanton (Japanese gelatine) and mix with the gravy, taking care not to break the plums.
11. Cook for another five minutes, then place on a hot platter decorated with slices of lemon or limes, with a plum placed on top of each slice.
12. This is good served either with white-bean cakes or rice.