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Hare Pie

A savory pie made with hare, liver, butter, port wine, and spices, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and port wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,499 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Hare Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Make a forcemeat with the hare's liver, seasoning it with grated lemon peel and spices.

  2. Avoid herbs if you want the pie to keep.

  3. Add ½ pound of butter.

  4. Place the hare in a tightly sealed container for 1 hour.

Assemble and bake

  1. Once cold, combine everything in a pie crust.

  2. Add ⅓ cup of port wine.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 2 hours.

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. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Liver + port winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together108 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + port winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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, whose lean texture and juices give the filling its body.
Liver of the hare
Makes a smooth, rich forcemeat that adds depth and helps bind the filling.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the filling and helps keep the meat moist.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity depth that complements the rich meat.
Grated lemon peel
Contributes a bright aroma that lifts the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Once cold, combine everything in a pie crust. Combining the filling only after it has cooled keeps the butter from melting out of the meat. Warm fat can separate and leave the filling greasy and loose, while a cold, firm mixture holds together better in the crust and bakes into a more cohesive pie.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, port wine):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Currantfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, port wine. 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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