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Hare Soup

A hearty soup made with hare, ham, stock, herbs, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat and fry the hare pieces and diced ham until browned.

  2. Pour in the stock and add the chopped onions, carrot, and herbs.

  3. Simmer slowly for 2 hours, then strain the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. From the best part of the hare, cut some dice and pound the remainder with the ham and cracker crumbs.

  2. Cook the mixture in the strained stock for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in the currant jelly and port wine, then serve hot.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 and rich, gamey flavor of the soup.
Butter
Fat that browns the hare and ham, adding savory flavor to the base.
Cracker crumbs
Bind the pounded meat mixture and help it thicken the soup.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavor to the finished soup.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity note that balances the savory broth.

The step that matters

Frying the hare and ham until browned. Browning builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pieces crowded or left pale will produce a flatter, less savory soup.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, onion, carrot, thyme, parsley, 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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