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Hare or Rabbit Soup

A hearty soup made from rabbit, bacon, onions, herbs, spices, and thickened with butter, flour, and red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Hare or Rabbit Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut up two hares.

  2. Put the hares into a pot with a piece of bacon, two chopped onions, a bundle of thyme and parsley.

  3. Add pepper, salt, pounded cloves, and mace.

  4. Add a sufficient quantity of water.

Stew and thicken

  1. Stew gently for three hours.

  2. Remove the bundle of thyme and parsley before the soup thickens.

  3. Thicken with a large spoonful of butter, one of brown flour, and a glass of red wine.

  4. Boil a few minutes longer.

Serve

  1. Serve with the nicest parts of the hares.

  2. Squirrels can be used instead of hares, prepared the same way.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

207Calories
5 gProtein
15 gFat
14 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Mary Randolph. 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Hares
Provide the meat that gives the soup its main body and flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping to give the soup a smooth, rounded texture.
Red wine (in the method)
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the soup.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury base flavour as they cook down in the soup.

The step that matters

Remove the bundle of thyme and parsley before the soup thickens. Herbs left in a long simmer can turn bitter and overpower the soup, so they should be removed at the right time, before the liquid reduces and thickens.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, thyme, parsley, pepper, clove):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, thyme, parsley, pepper, clove. 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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