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A Hare Pie

A savory pie made with hare, bacon, onions, wine, and spices, baked with a forcemeat filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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A Hare Pie

Why it works: Nutmeg and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 406 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. 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 in a pot with the butter, cover tightly with a cloth, and set in a pot of boiling water.

  3. Simmer for 1.5 hours, then remove and let cool.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Prepare the forcemeat by mixing bacon, onions, red wine, bread crumb, winter savory, chopped liver, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

Assemble and bake

  1. Raise the pie crust and place the forcemeat at the bottom.

  2. Add the hare pieces along with the collected gravy.

  3. Cover with the pie lid and decorate with flour or leaves.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) 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. Nutmeg + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + winter savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  5. Mace + winter savorytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together719 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 long, gentle simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the hare as it cooks in its covered pot.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the forcemeat, keeping it moist as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together and sets during baking.
Bread crumb
Soaks up liquid and gives the forcemeat body and a softer texture.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth of flavor to the forcemeat as they soften.

The step that matters

Simmering the hare in its covered pot. Gentle, sustained moist heat breaks down the tough connective tissue in hare. Boiling too hard or uncovering the pot can dry the meat and leave it tough.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, pepper, butter, onion, red wine, winter savory, liver. 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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