Jugging

Jugged hare

Jugged hare is a dish made by cutting a whole hare into pieces, marinating them, and cooking them with red wine and juniper berries in a tall jug placed inside a pan of water. The dish is often finished by adding the hare's blood, or serving it alongside, along with port wine. This recipe appears in Hannah Glasse's influential 18th-century cookbook The Art of Cookery. Since the 19th century, Glasse has been mistakenly credited with beginning the recipe with the line "First, catch your hare."

In reality, her instructions start with "Take your Hare when it is cas'd, and make a pudding ..." where "cas'd" means skinned, not caught. To get the blood, the hare must be freshly caught or shot. After removing the entrails, the hare is hung by its hind legs in a larder, which lets the blood pool in the chest cavity. To keep the blood from coagulating after draining, it can be mixed with red wine vinegar and then frozen.

Many British cookbooks from before the mid-20th century include recipes for jugged hare. A 2006 survey of 2,021 people for UKTV Food revealed that only 1.6% of those under 25 recognized the name "jugged hare," and 7 out of 10 of those who did said they would refuse to eat it if served at a friend's or relative's home.

Did You Know?

• Another traditional jugged dish in the United Kingdom is jugged kippers, where kipper (with heads and tails removed) is cooked in a covered jug in boiling water.
• Recipe books recommend jugging kippers as one way of avoiding the strong smell that kippers have.