Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Hare Hashed
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the hare into small pieces.
Season with salt, pepper, and onion.
Add lemon and wine, then heat until hot.
Remove the onion and lemon before serving.
Serve with currant jelly.
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.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Red wine + curranttop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together113 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,075 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, red wine, flour, lemon):
- Limefits better
- Orangefits better
- Plumfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, red wine, flour, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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