I was writing the below dinner scene in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 4: Betrayer, and since I wanted to be authentic, I went looking in some antique cookbooks that had been published around that time period.
In the cookbook, The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald, I found an interesting recipe, Hare Soup. (If you click the link, you can download a pdf copy of the scanned antique book.)
The book was reprinted many times over the Georgian and Regency eras (the edition I was looking at was published in 1808, which is 3 years before the events in Lady Wynwood’s Spies), so this soup would have been served at Laura’s dining table.
Laura’s heart ached for Phoebe, and she had prayed over her niece. But Phoebe hadn’t appeared calmed by the prayer. She declined dinner and retreated to her room down the hallway, and so now Laura was sitting to a solitary meal.
After Aya had set a bowl of hare soup in front of her, she asked the question Laura had been expecting. “What will you speak with Mr. Drydale about?”
I was really excited to try this soup since I had enjoyed authentic Regency White Soup quite a bit.
Here is the original recipe:
Cut a large old hare in small pieces, and put it in a mug, with three blades of mace, a little salt, two large onions, one red herring, six morels, half a pint of red wine, and three quarts of water; bake it in a quick oven three hours; then strain it into a toffing-pan; have ready boiled three ounces of French barley, or fago, in water; scald the liver of the hare in boiling water two minutes; rub it through a hair-sieve, with the back of a wooden spoon; put it into the soup with the barley or fago, and a quarter of a pound of butter; set it over the fire; keep stirring it, but do not let it boil: if you do not like liver, put in crisped bread steeped in red wine. This is a rich soup, and proper for a large entertainment; and where two soups are required, almond and onion soup for the top, and hare soup for the bottom.
My changes
I did not have access to hare or rabbit, so I substituted chicken thighs, which (according to the internet) is about the same texture as rabbit.
The soup seems to have quite strong flavors, which I am guessing is to mask the gaminess of hare. The meat is strained out of the soup, and it was probably repurposed for a stew or pie for the servants.
I thought removing the meat was a waste, so after making the soup (and taking pictures), I added the solids (minus the bonito flakes) back into the soup.
Since I have IBS, I had to make several substitutes. I can’t eat most dried mushrooms so I didn’t add the morels, but I included it below since that’s what was in the original recipe. I also substituted 1 cup of chopped leek tops instead of the onions. For the bread, I used homemade sourdough.
The red herring threw me a little (haha), but I realized that the term “red herring” had to have come from somewhere, so it was likely an actual fish. When I looked it up, red herrings are typically strongly brined or smoked fish.
I could have probably substituted smoked salmon, but that’s really expensive, and I had an unorthodox but cheaper alternative in bonito flakes, or katsuoboshi, which I use a lot in Japanese cooking and which a lot of people use as cat treats. Bonito flakes are finely shaved and very strong tasting so I only used 15 grams (about 1 cup) in place of the red herring.
I also didn’t have mace so I substituted ground nutmeg.
I looked up “fago” and I think it’s referring to buckwheat. I can’t eat barley because of my IBS, and I didn’t have buckwheat grains, so I substituted quinoa.
Also, using the oven for 3 hours would use a lot of electricity, so I used my Instant Pot instead. You can use a pot on the stove in lieu of the 3 hours of baking.
I’m guessing the 3 hours of baking is to extract maximum flavor from the hare meat and bones. I didn’t want to cook my chicken until it was falling apart, so I substituted a mix of stock and water.
For the bread: When I first made it, I followed the instructions and soaked toasted bread in wine, then strained it through a fine metal strainer. But after doing that, I realized it was the same thing as adding bread crumbs to the soup, so I have suggested below that you can substitute bread crumbs for the bread in the original recipe.
The recipe called for 1/4 pound of butter, which is kind of a lot. Since the original recipe used an “old hare,” I’m guessing it wasn’t as fatty as our modern day chicken or turkey. So I only added 4 tablespoons of butter. If I ever try this with turkey instead, I’d add a little more butter.
How it tasted
I’ll be honest, when I made it, the soup smelled very unusual and I was worried I’d wasted my chicken thighs.
But when I tasted it, it was delicious! It was different from chicken soup, but not weird or unpleasant. It was really rich and meaty-tasting, almost like a beef stock although I had used chicken. It had a slight tang, probably from the red wine I used.
It wasn’t as exotic tasting as you might think, considering the ingredients. It was mostly just a rich soup that had been made with wine.
Hare Soup
Ingredients
1 cup red wine and a little extra to soak bread
2.5 pounds chicken thighs
2 large onions (I used 1 cup chopped leek tops)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 quarts water or stock or a mix of both
6 dried morel mushrooms (I did not add this)
1/2 teaspoon salt
0.5 ounce (15 grams) bonito flakes (you can substitute a filet or two of smoked fish). If you do not intend to strain out the meat, put the bonito flakes/fish in a muslin bag so it’s easier to remove later.
3 ounces (weight) of barley or buckwheat, or 1/2 cup of quinoa, boiled until tender
1-2 pieces of bread or 1/2 to 1 cup bread crumbs
4-8 tablespoons of butter, to taste
Instructions:
Put wine in Instant Pot and set to sauté to boil off alcohol. If you’re using the stovetop or oven, you don’t need to do this.
Add chicken, onions, nutmeg, water/stock, morels, salt, and bonito flakes or smoked fish.
Set the Instant Pot on Soup/Stew high pressure or Manual high pressure for 13 minutes. After cooking, you can release the pressure instantly or let the pressure release naturally. If using the stovetop, bring everything to a boil and then simmer gently until the chicken is tender.
In the meantime, cook your barley or buckwheat or quinoa.
If using bread, toast the bread and crumble into a bowl. Add red wine just until the bread is soaked. If using breadcrumbs, you don’t need to toast them, but soak them in a little bit of red wine.
When the soup is done, strain it to remove all the solids.
Add the cooked grains (barley, buckwheat, or quinoa), and the butter. If using bread, strain the bread through a fine metal sieve. If using breadcrumbs, simply add the breadcrumbs and wine mix.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Did you try it? Leave a comment if you did! How did you like it?
Curious how it all begins?
Click below to read the beginning of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer for free and step into a world of Regency intrigue, danger, and slow-burn romance.
Reference Footer
This post relates to Camille Elliot’s Lady Wynwood’s Spies, a Christian Regency romantic suspense series set in 1811 London and featuring intrigue, espionage, botanical alchemy, slow-burn romance, and themes of faith and redemption.
• Lady Wynwood’s Spies Series Reference Page
• Reading Order: Lady Wynwood’s Spies Reader Journey Roadmap
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