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Roast Hare

Roast hare is a dish where a hare is seasoned, basted, and roasted until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Roast Hare

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Choose a young hare with smooth, sharp claws and a small cleft in the lip.

  2. Hang the hare for some time; if previously emptied, wipe the inside daily and sprinkle pepper and ginger to prevent musty taste.

  3. Skin the hare.

  4. Wash the hare well.

  5. Soak the hare for an hour in warm water to draw out the blood.

  6. If the hare is old, let it lie in vinegar for a short time, then wash it well in several waters.

Stuff and truss

  1. Make a forcemeat according to recipe No. 417.

  2. Wipe the hare dry.

  3. Fill the belly with the forcemeat and sew it up.

  4. Bring the hind and fore legs close to the body toward the head.

  5. Run a skewer through each leg.

  6. Fix the head between the shoulders with another skewer, leaving the ears on.

  7. Pat a string round the body from skewer to skewer.

  8. Tie the string above the back.

Roast and serve

  1. Keep the hare at a distance from the fire when first laid down to prevent the outside from drying before the inside is done.

  2. Baste the hare well with milk for a short time.

  3. Afterwards, baste the hare with butter, paying particular attention to preserve the meat on the back juicy and nutritive.

  4. When the hare is almost roasted enough, flour it.

  5. Baste the hare well with butter again.

  6. When the hare is nicely frothed, dish it.

  7. Remove the skewers.

  8. Serve the hare with a little gravy in the dish and a tureen of the same.

  9. Do not forget to serve red-currant jelly with the hare.

  10. For economy, substitute good beef dripping for the milk and butter when basting, but continue the basting without intermission.

  11. If the liver is good, parboil it, mince it, and mix it with the stuffing; use only if fresh.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

118Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
22 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
The lean meat that is basted repeatedly so the back stays juicy during roasting.

The step that matters

Keep the hare away from the fire at first. Placing it too close at the start dries and sets the outside before the thick interior and stuffing are cooked through. Gentle initial heat lets the centre catch up.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, clove, carrot, sherry, pepper, mace):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, clove, carrot, sherry, pepper, mace. 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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