From: The Thorough Good Cook
Entrees: "Kickshaws" of Rabbit, Italian Sauce
Roast lightly three or four young rabbits, and pick off all the white meat; mince it very finely with a sharp knife, that it may not be ragged; reduce four spoonfuls of white sauce with a spoonful of cream, season it with a little cayenne pepper and salt; throw in the rabbit while the sauce is hot, set it to cool, then beat up six yolks of eggs with a teaspoonful of cream; pass the eggs through a colander to the rabbit, and mix thoroughly; butter eight or ten small moulds, and put a piece of white paper at the bottom of each; fill each mould with mince, and half an hour before dinner set them in a stew-pan; pour boiling water round them, about half the height of the mould, cover the stew-pan close, set it over a stove, and put some lighted charcoal on the cover; when done, turn the "kickshaws" on the dish, and put over them a clear brown Italian sauce.
Why "kickshaws"?, you may ask. Well; turn to Justice Shallow's instructions to William the cook in the second part of "King Henry IV." (Act V., Scene 1), and you will see that at any rate the word is an old one. French cooks call the above dish "Paupetons de Lapereau," an exceptionally commanding phrase; but I prefer "kickshaws," which is at least Shakespearean, although it is manifestly a corruption of the French quelque chose. |
