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The Art of Trussing ; or Trussing Game
How to truss a rabbit for boiling; how to truss a hare from Young Woman's Best Companion, 1770
Courtesy National Library of Medcine
On these two pages Jackson describes how to compactly truss a rabbit or a hare before boiling it in a pot over a fire. In the case of the hare, the cook needs to skewer the animal in seven places from head to 'scut' (tail), including putting 'two skewers in the ears to make them almost stand upright.'
Read Transcript140, The Young Woman's Best Companion.
How to truss a Rabbet for boiling.
[Diagram of a trussed rabbit].
Explanation.
first cut the two haunches close to the back-bone two inches, then turn up the haunches by the side of the rabbet, and skewer them through the middle of the back, as at 1, then pass a skewer through the shoulder. Blades and neck, and the utmost joints of the legs, as at 2. Bend the neck backwards, and truss the shoulders high, that the skewer may be easily put through the whole. How to truss a Hare.
[Diagram of a trussed hare]
The Young Woman's Best Companion. 141
Explanation.
In casing a hare, when you come to the ears, put a skewer jolt between the head and the skin, and raise it up by degrees till both the ears are stripped, and take off the rest as usual. then twist the head over the back, as at 1, and put two skewers in the ears to make them stand almost upright, and to keep the head in a proper position; then push up the joint of the shoulder-blade towards the back, and put a skewer between the joints through the bottom jaw, to keep it steady, as at 2, and another skewer through the lower branch of the leg and through the ribs, as at 3, to keep the plate-bone up tight, and another through the point of the same branch, as, at 4; then bend both legs in between the haunches so as to make their points meet under the scut, and take care to skewer them fast with two skewers, as at 6 6.
A Hart may also be trussed short, in the Manner of a Rabbit for boiling.