Well ... .there is always Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, on the Ohio River, just over the waterway from Indiana.
Rabbit Hash'es General Store The OFFICIAL website of Rabbit Hash. Rabbit Hash: The dish
Connynges in Papdele
"26 Hares in papdele. Take hares; perboile hem in gode broth. Cole the broth and
wasshe the fleysshe; cast a3ain togydre. Take obleys oþer wafrouns in defaute of loseyns, and cowche in dysshes. Take powdour douce and lay on; salt the broth and lay onoward & messe forth."
Curye on Inglysch, Book IV, "The Forme of Cury", c. 1390 C.E.
What they did:
Note that the recipe calls for hares. Hares are simmered in stock (probably chicken, capon, or white beef stock) until the meat can be easily removed from the bones. The stock is strained off the hares, which are cleaned of all bone, gristle, and extraneous proteins like albumen scum, which may or may not actually involve rinsing the meat, as washing would suggest to the modern mind. The chunks of meat are added back to the broth, and the stew is layered between sheets of cooked pasta or wafers. The difference between obleys and wafers seems to have been pretty minor: both are a thin pastry cooked between irons like a thin waffle, and after they've sat in hare broth for a few minutes the difference becomes even less important. Our hare lasagna is topped with a mixture of powdered sweet spices like cinnamon and cloves.
What we'll do differently:
The primary difference is that we'll be using coneys (rabbits), since they're more readily available and sufficiently adventurous for most SCAdians I know anyway. We'll pretty much follow the recipe as stated above, using chicken broth for our rabbits, and interpreting the phrase "good broth" to include a generous amout of fresh herbs, like whole thyme, savory or marjoram, and parsley stems. But, while the rabbit meat is being removed from the bones, we'll reduce the broth to a saucier, syrupy consistency, and lay the meat between our loseyns, while the recipe is rather unclear on just how the meat and pasta are arranged. We'll take a line from a recognizable lasgna dish as far as the presentation is concerned. By the way, a nearly identical dish of braised duck sforza on papardella was, until quite recently, a big seller at Felidia's in New York City
What you need to make eight small servings:
1 large rabbit, around three pounds, jointed
1 quart good chicken stock, low sodium if canned
dry white wine or water
optional: fresh herbs -- parsley, thyme, rosemary, etc. ; use 1/3 the amount if dried
optional: packet of unflavored gelatin if using canned stock
1/2 lb dry lasagna noodles (at least nine strips)
salt to taste
1/4 tsp powdered cloves
1/4 tsp powdered cinnamon
In a 3-or-4-quart saucepan, bring the rabbit to a boil in the stock with the optional herbs and enough wine or water to cover the rabbit pieces well. Reduce the heat to a simmer, skim, and cook for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until rabbit is tender. Let the rabbit cool in the broth for half an hour or so.
Meanwhile, boil your lasagna noodles in lightly salted water for around 12 minutes or until tender. Remember this doesn't get a subsequent baking, so it won't absorb the tomato sauce that isn't there anyway, and get softer. Boil it until it's as tender as you want it to be. Drain and reserve the noodles, with a little oil to keep them from sticking together.
Lift the rabbit pieces from the broth. Strain the broth and reserve the rabbit.
Reduce the broth, if necessary: moisten the gelatin, if using, with a little lukewarm water, until it puffs up and becomes clear. Heat the broth and dissolve the gelatin (which occurs naturally in real stock, but is more or less absent from canned) in it. Bring the broth to a boil and reduce it to around 2 1/2 cups, by which time it will have thickened slightly: you'll see the bubbles that normally occur on top of boiling liquid suddenly collapse, and the liquid will have become slightly syrupy.
While the sauce is cooking, remove the meat from the rabbit bones. Scrape rib meat from the bones with a paring knife, but the rest should come right off using the fingers. Watch our for gristle. Give the meat a rough chop if you want to, and add it to the broth/sauce.
Lay out 1/3 of your noodles in a serving bowl, and spoon half of the rabbit hash (or stew if you've left it in big chunks) onto it, spreading it evenly. Cover with another layer of pasta, followed by the other half of the rabbit. Top with the last of the pasta. Pour any remaining broth over the top. Cut like a tac-tac-toe board, dust lightly with the cloves and cinnamon, mixed, and serve.
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