To make it, you take a whole hare, and clean it, saving the blood. You then chop up the hare getting the meat off it and set aside the meat.
You lightly sauté in a pot some vegetables (such as chopped celery, carrot, turnip and onion), then add water and the hare carcass and simmer for 2 to 3 hours to make a broth.
You then strain the broth, discarding the carcass but keeping the vegetables. Then, liquidize the broth with its vegetables, and set aside.
You take the pieces of meat you had earlier set aside, dredge them in flour, fry in butter or fat, then add to the broth to simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Then, remove the meat, chop the meat up into smaller pieces, and return these to the broth.
Make a thickener for the soup by mixing together the hare blood (strained), some flour (about 2 oz / 60 g / ¼ cup), a bit of vinegar. Thin and warm it with some of the brother, and stir it into the soup. Finally, heat the soup to let the thickener kick in (don’t let it boil, or the blood will curdle.)
Optional: add flavourings such as mushroom ketchup (about 2 to 4 tbsp), port (about 2 to 5 oz / 60ml to 150 ml.) Just before serving, some people like to stir in a dollop of Rowan, redcurrant or cranberry jelly.
Bawd Bree used to be traditional in some Scottish homes at Christmas.
Language Notes
“Bawd” in Scots Gaelic means “hare”; “bree” means “broth” (specifically, a broth in which something has been boiled, and left in it – as opposed to being strained out and discarded, as is often the case with French Haute Cuisine.)