For the marinade:
1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
1 Onion
12 black pepper corns
4 whole cloves
4 bay leaves
4 �Wacholder berries� (I replace those German berries with 8 dried Cranberries)
1 pinch thyme
1 pinch pimento,
1 pinch coriander,
1 pinch marjoram,
1 pinch salt,
1 pinch pepper,
2 tbsp butter for frying
2 carrots (in small cubes)
2/3 cups flour
4 cups red wine (dry)
3 to 4 tbsp cranberry jelly
� cup hare blood (you can replace the blood with very fine grated black chocolate)
After two days remove the meat from the marinade and dry it off. Fry the meat in a little of oil until brown and add the carrots.
In a separate pan melt the butter and add the flour (stir all the time, so it does not burn). After the flour reached a nice brown color add the red wine and stir well.
Add the sauce over the browned hare meat and add the clove-spiked onion. Cover and let simmer until the meat is tender (3-4 hours).
At the end, add salt and pepper at your taste, the jam and hare blood respectively black chocolate and stir well. Add a little red wine or water, if the flavor of the vinegar is still too strong. If you use blood, do not bring the stew back to a boil, or the blood will coagulate.
History: This recipe dates back to 1352 (of course without the chocolate version) in the German State of Westfalen. It was a very popular hunters recipe. - Now where does the "pepper" come from? In the old times "pfeffer"=pepper meant any kind of stew. Besides Hare/Jackrabbit you can use also rabbit or even beef (although you will miss the wild game flavor then). An old hunters version from the 15. Century uses even Badger instead of Hare. Be aware that some animals are today protected. (In Germany: Hare and Badger).
