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Mock Hare

A loaf of seasoned steak and pork mixed with eggs, crackers, and spices, baked and served with mushroom gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mock Hare

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the loaves

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the round steak, salt pork, onion, eggs, rolled crackers, pepper, salt, and milk or stock.

  3. Shape the mixture into two loaves like bread.

  4. Scatter cracker crumbs and bits of butter over the tops of the loaves.

Bake and make the gravy

  1. Bake for 1 hour, basting often.

  2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan. Add 1 tablespoon of flour to the melted butter and stir to thicken the gravy.

  3. Add the can of mushrooms to the gravy.

Serve

  1. Serve one loaf hot with the mushroom gravy or a tomato sauce, and the other loaf cold, sliced thin.

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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Forms the main body of the loaves, providing the meaty texture once cooked and set.
Salt pork
Adds fat that keeps the loaves moist and adds savory richness during baking.
Eggs
Bind the chopped meat together so the loaves hold their shape when sliced.
Crackers
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture, with crumbs adding a browned top.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a smooth gravy when stirred in.

The step that matters

Basting the loaves during baking. Lean ground meat dries out easily in the oven. Regular basting adds moisture to the surface, helping the loaves stay juicy and browning evenly over the hour-long bake.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, egg, pepper, milk, butter, mushroom, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, egg, pepper, milk, butter, mushroom, flour. 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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