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Hare Soup

A stew of hare, beef, ham, onions, herbs, and port wine simmered in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Divide the hare into small pieces.

  2. Fry the pieces.

Stew and strain

  1. Add the hare, beef, ham, and vegetables to 2 quarts of stock or water.

  2. Stew gently for three hours.

  3. Strain the liquid from the meat.

Finish the soup

  1. Pound and rub the meat through a fine sieve.

  2. Return the meat to the strained liquid with the crumb of a French roll and ⅓ cup port wine.

  3. Simmer for half an hour.

  4. Pass the mixture through a sieve again.

  5. Rewarm without boiling.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Port wine + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 flavour and, once pounded, thickens the soup body.
French roll
Its crumb thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness when the hare pieces are fried.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the stock as it stews.

The step that matters

Rewarm without boiling. Once the soup is thickened with bread crumb and meat, a hard boil can cause it to scorch on the base and separate or turn grainy, so gentle heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, port wine, onion, pepper, butter, beef):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, port wine, onion, pepper, butter, beef. 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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