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Belgian Hare

A game meat dish made by baking pieces of Belgian hare with onion, bay leaf, stock, flour, butter, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 68,474 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Belgian Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the hare down through the center; wipe it carefully with a damp cloth, but do not wash it; if there is the slightest appearance of fur on the meat, singe it.

  2. Disjoint the hind legs and make two pieces of them; cut off the saddle; take off the fore‑quarter, making in all nine pieces.

  3. Arrange the pieces neatly in a baking pan, flesh side down.

  4. Dust lightly with pepper, add 1 tablespoonful chopped onion and a bay leaf.

Bake

  1. Put a teaspoon of kitchen bouquet into ½ pint of stock or water, add 1 teaspoon of salt, stir and pour into the pan.

  2. Cover with another pan, put into a quick oven and bake 1½ hours, basting frequently.

  3. Half an hour before the hare is done, remove the upper pan so that each piece may be nicely browned.

  4. Dish neatly and garnish with triangular pieces of toast.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. To the pan add 2 tablespoonfuls of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter; mix and add 1 pint of stock or water (the pan should be dry when the hare is done).

  2. Stir this sauce until boiling, add a half teaspoonful of salt.

  3. Pour this sauce over the hare, dust with chopped parsley and serve.

By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Tea + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + teatop 25% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare (in the method)
The main meat, kept moist by basting under a covered pan during baking.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth sauce when cooked with fat and liquid.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, carrying flavour and smoothness.
Stock
Provides the liquid base for the braising and the sauce, adding savoury flavour.
Kitchen bouquet
Adds a brown colour and concentrated savoury flavour to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Remove the upper pan half an hour before the hare is done. Removing the cover exposes the meat to dry oven heat, which browns the surface through the Maillard reaction. Leaving the cover on would keep the pieces pale and steamed.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, tea, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Arrowrootbetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, tea, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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