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Stewed Hare

A stew of hare pieces larded with bacon, cooked with herbs, onions, carrot, cloves, mace, broth, and red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Stewed Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Lard each piece of hare with the bacon fillets seasoned with shallot, parsley, and mixed spice.

  2. Place thin slices of bacon at the bottom of a stewpan.

  3. Add the larded hare pieces.

  4. Add the bunch of sweet herbs, onions, carrot, cloves, and mace.

  5. Pour in the broth and red wine.

  6. Cover with more bacon.

  7. Cover the stewpan tightly to keep steam in.

Cook

  1. Place it in a larger pot with boiling water around it.

  2. Cook for 4 hours, ensuring the water remains boiling.

  3. Remove the hare.

Finish and serve

  1. Plate it neatly.

  2. Strain the cooking liquid.

  3. Skim off the fat.

  4. Reduce the liquid quickly with sauce tournee.

  5. Season with cayenne pepper and salt.

  6. Pour it hot over the hare.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle stewing.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean hare moist during the long cook.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the cooking liquid that becomes the sauce.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavour to the stewing liquid.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and body to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling around the stewpan. Cooking the hare slowly inside a covered stewpan set in boiling water gently cooks the meat and traps steam, so the hare stays moist and tender rather than drying out or toughening. If the outer water stops boiling, the long cook loses its steady heat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, parsley, marjoram, basil, thyme, carrot, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, parsley, marjoram, basil, thyme, carrot, 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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