Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Superlative Hare Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
Cut down a hare into joints and put into a soup-pot or large stewpan.
Add about a pound of lean ham in thick slices, three moderate-sized mild onions, three blades of mace, a faggot of thyme, sweet marjoram, and parsley, and about three quarts of good beef stock.
Let it stew very gently for full two hours from the time of its first beginning to boil, and more if the hare is old.
Strain the soup and pound together very fine the slices of ham and all the flesh of the back, legs, and shoulders of the hare.
Put this meat into a stewpan with the liquor in which it was boiled, the crumb of two French rolls, and half a pint of port wine.
Set it on the stove to simmer twenty minutes.
Rub it through a sieve.
Place it again on the stove till very hot, but do not let it boil.
Season it with salt and cayenne.
Send it to table directly.
Make the second stock
Pour on two pounds of neck or shin of beef and a hare well washed and carved into joints, one gallon of cold water.
When it boils and has been thoroughly skimmed, add an ounce and a half of salt, two onions, one large head of celery, three moderate-sized carrots, a teaspoonful of black peppercorns, and six cloves.
Let these stew very gently for three hours, or longer, should the hare not be perfectly tender.
Then take up the principal joints, cut the meat from them, mince, and pound it to a fine paste, with the crumb of two penny rolls (or two ounces of the crumb of household bread) which has been soaked in a little of the boiling soup, and then pressed very dry in a cloth.
Strain, and mix smoothly with it the stock from the remainder of the hare.
Pass the soup through a strainer.
Season it with cayenne.
Serve it when at the point of boiling.
If not sufficiently thick, add to it a tablespoonful of arrow-root moistened with a little cold broth, and let the soup simmer for an instant afterwards.
Two or three glasses of port wine, and two dozens of small forcemeat-balls, may be added to this soup with good effect.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Beef | 100g cooked | 250 |
| Pork | 100g cooked | 242 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Port Wine | 2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml) | 25 |
| Carrot | 1 medium (61g) | 25 |
| Clove | 1 tsp ground (2g) | 7 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Cayenne | 1 tsp (1.8g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hare (in the method)
- Provides the main meat flavour and, once pounded, body to the soup.
- Beef stock
- Forms the liquid base and carries the savoury flavour of the soup.
- Lean ham
- Adds salty, savoury depth to the stock and the pounded meat.
- Household bread or french rolls
- Soaked crumb that thickens the pounded meat and gives the soup body.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness, richness and aroma to the finished soup.
- Arrow-root
- Starch that thickens the soup if it is not thick enough.
The step that matters
Do not let the soup boil after the pounded meat and port are added. Reheating gently keeps the soup smooth and prevents the thickened meat and starch from separating or curdling, while boiling can make it grainy and thin.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, ham, port wine, onion, celery, carrot):
- Parsleyfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, ham, port wine, onion, celery, carrot. 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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