Falscher Hase

On our recent visit to Fairfax, Tom made us a really delicious meat loaf. Inside it were hard-boiled eggs, giving each slice a very pretty cross-section. (I regret having taken no photos.) I am a meat-loaf lover -- I often order it in retro restaurants and diners -- so I really enjoyed it.

Tom told us that his mother often made this dish, and that it's called "Falscher Hase," or "Fake Rabbit." However, he had no idea why it had this name -- and it's not an Easter-dish, just one that his mother made from time to time.

Franz and Rosi, Tom's parents, subsequently sent this explanation of the dish:

Fortunately, our friend Peter made us this translation:

"Did you know? In days gone by, many a Sunday dinner had for its main course a so-called false hare. That's a meat loaf put in a form that shaped it like a rabbit which usually had an egg filling and had strips of bacon on top. Very tasty --but basically a hard times dish. Since only a very few families could afford an expensive rack of rabbit roast, along came an inventive lady of the house who came up with the idea to prepare reasonably priced ground beef, shaping it so that it looked like a fine rack of rabbit. And so it came about that the plain meat loaf became a dish that looked proper for the affluent folk."

I write with gratitude to Tom for cooking us this great dish, Rosi for being its original author, Franz for the explanation, and Peter for the translation. Thanks, everyone!