Roast Hare with Soured Cream II (lievre a la creme)

About the dish

The recipe appears in the chapter on poultry and game, right after Erken's thorough explanation of how the hare is skinned, cleaned, and larded ("As a rule one reckons 100 g pork to 1 kg meat"). Soured-cream roast hare was a classic festive dinner in bourgeois Norwegian homes, and the cream-basting every five minutes shows how labor-intensive old roasting craft was.

How to make it

1. 1

   Clean the hare

   Skin the hare, open it, take out the entrails, and wash and dry the meat well. Loosen all membranes with a sharp knife and pull them off without damaging the meat. Crack the thigh bones and backbone lightly on the inside.

2. 2

   Lard the meat

   Cut the pork into thin strips of equal length, season them with salt, and ideally let them sit a couple of hours so they become firm. Insert the strips into the meat on each side of the backbone and in the thighs at even intervals, with a larding needle or a thin knife. Salt the hare on the outside.

3. 3

   Brown and roast

   Melt the butter in a frying pan or roasting pan and place the hare in it with the larded side up. Roast in the oven at 200 degrees C and baste often with the butter until the hare is half tender.

4. 4

   Thin with water

   Add enough boiling water that the roast does not burn, about 5 dl.

5. 5

   Baste with sour cream

   Pour the sour cream over the hare and continue basting the roast with a spoonful of the juices and cream about every five minutes until it is tender. A young hare is done after about 1-1.5 hours.

6. 6

   Sauce and serving

   Baste the hare with a little lemon juice right at the end. Strain the juices, bring them to a boil, and thicken with the potato starch stirred out in a little cold water. Lay the hare on a warm platter and serve with salad and fried potatoes, with the sauce on the side.