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A Curry of Hare or Rabbit

A stew of hare pieces cooked in butter, onions, curry powder, cayenne pepper, salt, wine, and bay leaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Curry of Hare or Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the hare pieces and stir until browned.

  3. Sprinkle in the flour and mix well.

  4. Add the chopped onions, curry powder, salt, cayenne pepper, bay leaf, and wine.

  5. Stir well, cover, and let simmer for about 1 hour.

  6. Serve with boiled rice.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
Provides the meat that is browned and then becomes tender in the simmering liquid.
Butter
Fat for browning the hare and carrying the curry flavour through the pot.
Flour
Lightly thickens the cooking liquid as it simmers with the hare.
Wine
Adds acidity and liquid that helps the meat become tender during simmering.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, forming a flavour base for the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour after browning. Flour needs a moment to mix into the fat and meat juices so it thickens smoothly rather than forming lumps when liquid is added.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, wine, 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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