Râble de Lièvre au Genièvre

Râble de lièvre au genièvre (saddle of hare with gin and juniper) teaches the discipline of the pan reduction. The meat is lean and quick, so roast by temperature, not hope; it must rest at the very moment gin and marinade lift its fond, the browned film fixed to the roasting dish, into sauce. That shared clock is the one true thing to know before you touch the pan.

The brigade formula assumed a saucier with poivrade, the peppery game sauce, ready from a stockpot never off the fire, a five-quart vessel of Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168), and another pair of hands at the roasting dish. At home, prepare those finished components ahead, use one flameproof dish for browning, roasting, and reduction, and scale the marinade to what one râble needs. The bulk batch and constant tending were service scaffolding; roasting on the marinade vegetables, reducing gin and marinade by half, then adding cream, poivrade, and exactly four juniper berries are the dish, and they stay.

Dry the saddle thoroughly, brown it before it meets the vegetables, and trust the thermometer. While the hare rests, the same dish gives you a glossy, peppery sauce with juniper held in check by cream. One cook, one stove, one evening at the fire.