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Dessert

A Hare Pie

A savory pie made with hare, bacon, onions, and spices, encased in pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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A Hare Pie

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

A Hare Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the hare

  1. Season the hare pieces with mace, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  2. Place the hare pieces in a jug with ½ pound of butter.

  3. Cover the jug tightly.

  4. Stew in boiling water for 1.5 hours.

  5. Remove the hare and let it cool.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Make a forcemeat by mixing bacon, onions, red wine, bread crumb, winter‑savory, liver, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

Assemble and bake

  1. Raise the pie crust.

  2. Place the forcemeat at the bottom of the crust.

  3. Add the hare and its gravy.

  4. Cover with the pie lid.

  5. Decorate with flowers or leaves.

  6. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hare
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, moist stewing.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and keeping the meat moist while it stews.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat together and add richness and body.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the forcemeat, keeping it moist.
Bread crumb
Absorbs liquid and gives the forcemeat a light, binding texture.
Liver
Adds depth and a rich, savoury flavour to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Stew the hare tightly covered. Keeping the jug sealed traps steam so the meat cooks gently in its own juices and butter, staying moist rather than drying out in the boiling water.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, nutmeg, pepper, onion, red wine, liver, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, nutmeg, pepper, onion, red wine, liver, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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