Falscher Hase (German Mock Hare Meatloaf with Eggs)
Germany's "mock hare": a beef and pork loaf bound with soaked rolls, wrapped around three whole hard-boiled eggs, topped with bacon and served with a sour cream pan gravy.
German has a whole shelf of names for a roast made of ground meat: Hackbraten, Wiegebraten, faschierter Braten, falscher Hase and Heuchelhase. German Wikipedia says the hare names probably come from the copper or earthenware hare-shaped pans the loaf was baked in for centuries, or from cooks shaping the meat by hand like a hare or a saddle of hare; it lists printed recipes for "Faschirter Hase" in a Viennese cookbook of 1831 and the Pester Kochbuch of 1835, and says most copper hare pans were probably lost to the metal drives of World War I. Whole, peeled hard-boiled eggs inside are usual, and the pan juices become a sauce, often with sour cream. In Austria, three eggs inside make it a "Stephaniebraten" (English Wikipedia:).
A popular story says otherwise: the German food magazine LECKER says the name dates to the postwar years, when families could not afford a real hare for Sunday dinner and stretched mixed ground meat with bread rolls instead. That story is DISPUTED: Hedwig Heyl's Volks-Kochbuch, a home economics cookbook whose preface is dated 1905, already tells cooks to shape the meat mixture into a long loaf and roast it "als Falscher Hase" (Project Gutenberg:). Either way, it is the meatloaf with a surprise in the middle.
🇩🇪 The original
Germany's "mock hare": a beef and pork loaf bound with soaked rolls, wrapped around three whole hard-boiled eggs, topped with bacon and served with a sour cream pan gravy.
🇺🇸 The American version
America skipped the eggs inside, bound the beef and pork with saltines and milk, and painted the top with a sweet brown sugar and ketchup glaze. See the Classic Glazed American Meatloaf recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Soaked rolls
Bread soaked in water and squeezed out holds moisture inside the meat as it cooks, which LECKER says, with the egg, keeps the loaf from crumbling or drying out.
A pan of water and a bacon lid
Steam from the water dish and the bacon fat basting the top keep a big, slow-baking loaf from drying out, and the drippings they leave behind become the gravy.
Step by step
- Step 1
Hard-boil 3 eggs: lower them into boiling water and cook 7 minutes, then cool in cold water and peel. At the same time, tear the rolls into pieces and soak them in cold water for 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Heat the oven to 400°F (375°F convection) and set a shallow ovenproof dish of hot water on the lowest rack. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a small skillet over medium heat and cook the onion 4 to 5 minutes, until soft. Take the pan off the heat and stir in half the parsley.
- Step 3
Squeeze the rolls as dry as you can and crumble them into a large bowl. Add the beef, pork, raw egg, marjoram, salt, pepper and the onion mixture and knead with your hands about 1 minute, just until it holds together.
- Step 4
On a sheet of parchment, pat the meat into a rectangle about 10 by 8 inches. Lay the peeled eggs end to end down the middle, fold the meat up around them and press the seam closed to make a smooth loaf about 11 inches long. Roll it onto a greased roasting pan seam side down.
- Step 5
Lay the bacon across the top, melt the remaining 1 tbsp butter and drizzle it over, and push the bay leaves into the meat. Bake 60 to 70 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the meat next to the eggs reads 160°F.
- Step 6
Lift the loaf onto a platter, remove the bay leaves, tent it with foil and let it rest 10 minutes. Pour the hot water into the roasting pan, scrape up the browned bits and strain everything into a small saucepan.
- Step 7
Whisk the sour cream with the flour until smooth, whisk it into the pan juices, bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the rest of the parsley.
- Step 8
Cut the loaf into thick slices so every slice shows a ring of egg, and serve with the gravy and potatoes.
Falscher Hase (German Mock Hare Meatloaf with Eggs)
Serves 6 · 1 large loaf (about 12 slices) plus about 2 cups gravy · 1 hr 50 min total
Filling
- 3 large eggs
Loaf
- 2 stale kaiser rolls (about 3 1/2 oz total)
- 2 tbsp butter, divided
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, divided
- 1 lb ground beef (85% lean)
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp dried marjoram
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 bay leaves
Gravy
- 1 cup hot water
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- Salt and pepper
To serve (optional)
- Boiled or mashed potatoes, carrots and peas
Method
- Hard-boil 3 eggs: lower them into boiling water and cook 7 minutes, then cool in cold water and peel. At the same time, tear the rolls into pieces and soak them in cold water for 10 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 400°F (375°F convection) and set a shallow ovenproof dish of hot water on the lowest rack. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a small skillet over medium heat and cook the onion 4 to 5 minutes, until soft. Take the pan off the heat and stir in half the parsley.
- Squeeze the rolls as dry as you can and crumble them into a large bowl. Add the beef, pork, raw egg, marjoram, salt, pepper and the onion mixture and knead with your hands about 1 minute, just until it holds together.
- On a sheet of parchment, pat the meat into a rectangle about 10 by 8 inches. Lay the peeled eggs end to end down the middle, fold the meat up around them and press the seam closed to make a smooth loaf about 11 inches long. Roll it onto a greased roasting pan seam side down.
- Lay the bacon across the top, melt the remaining 1 tbsp butter and drizzle it over, and push the bay leaves into the meat. Bake 60 to 70 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the meat next to the eggs reads 160°F.
- Lift the loaf onto a platter, remove the bay leaves, tent it with foil and let it rest 10 minutes. Pour the hot water into the roasting pan, scrape up the browned bits and strain everything into a small saucepan.
- Whisk the sour cream with the flour until smooth, whisk it into the pan juices, bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the rest of the parsley.
- Cut the loaf into thick slices so every slice shows a ring of egg, and serve with the gravy and potatoes.
Adapted from Manuela Trinh, "Falscher Hase: das klassische Rezept", LECKER.de (no date shown). LECKER gives 1 kg mixed ground meat, 2 stale rolls, 4 eggs (3 hard-boiled for 7 minutes, 1 raw), 2 onions, 1 bunch parsley, marjoram, 4 slices bacon and 2 bay leaves, baked 60 to 70 minutes at 200°C (175°C fan) with a dish of water in the oven, and a gravy of the pan juices, 250 ml hot water, 150 g Schmand and 1 tbsp flour. It gives no serving count; 6 is ours. We use one onion in the loaf (LECKER cooks the other with its side vegetables), a half-and-half beef and pork mix, 2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp white pepper (LECKER says only salt and pepper), and the 160°F center check (FoodSafety.gov). The potatoes, carrots and peas LECKER serves are optional here. LECKER. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (4)
Tips
- For a neater loaf, LECKER suggests baking it in a loaf pan.
- Peel the eggs while they are still warm; they peel more cleanly.
- Swiss cooks serve Hackbraten with mashed potatoes or small pasta (German Wikipedia).
- Cold slices make good sandwiches the next day.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- The name comes from postwar poverty. Disputed: LECKER says the name dates to the postwar years; German Wikipedia cites "Faschirter Hase" recipes from 1831 and 1835, and Hedwig Heyl's cookbook (preface 1905) already uses "Falscher Hase".
- It's called hare because of the pan. Disputed: German Wikipedia says "probably" the hare-shaped pans, or a loaf shaped like a hare by hand; no one knows for sure.
- The eggs are traditional. Documented: German Wikipedia says whole hard-boiled eggs are usual; Austria's Stephaniebraten has three (English Wikipedia).
- Mix beef and pork. Documented as the usual mix (German Wikipedia; LECKER's mixed ground meat).
- Hackbraten is the same as Fleischkäse or Leberkäse. Documented as not so: English Wikipedia says Fleischlaib is actually Leberkäse, which is not meatloaf.
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