Skip to main content
Preserve

Potted Hare

A hare preserved by slow baking with butter and spices, then cooled and stored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Clean the hare as for roasting: remove skin and sinew, wipe dry.

  2. Cut the hare into joints.

  3. Season the joints with salt, cayenne (or pepper), pounded cloves, mace or nutmeg, well mingled.

  4. Pack the seasoned joints closely in a jar or deep pan.

Add fat and bake

  1. Add from half to a whole pound of fresh butter laid in small bits, or add enough water or gravy to prevent it becoming hard.

  2. Cover the jar with at least two separate folds of thick brown paper tied closely over it.

  3. Slowly bake until very tender.

  4. Leave the pot to become perfectly cold.

Pot and serve

  1. Scrape off used butter and remove moisture; add it to the hare in pounding it if necessary.

  2. If water or gravy has been added, use firm fresh butter in potting; no large proportion is required.

  3. The bones, gravy, head, and ribs will make a small tureen of excellent soup.

  4. Thick slices of lean ham are sometimes baked with the hare and pounded with it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

31Calories
1 gProtein
2 gFat
5 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 Eliza Acton. 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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 meat that becomes tender and is pounded into the potted spread.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat and moisture, sealing the meat and keeping the potted result soft and rich.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the seasoned meat.
Mace
Adds a delicate, warm aroma that complements the meat.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, sweet aroma to the seasoned meat.

The step that matters

Slow baking until very tender. Long, gentle heat breaks down connective tissue in the hare so it becomes tender enough to pound smoothly. Fast, high heat would toughen the meat and dry it out.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Green Corn PuddingGreen Corn Pudding64 recipesCornmeal mushCornmeal mush12 recipes