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Forcemeat for Hare

A forcemeat mixture of hare liver, suet, bacon, bread crumbs, herbs, and egg yolks used to stuff a hare.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram 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 ↓

Forcemeat for Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the hare liver and mince it finely.

  2. Chop the suet and shred the bacon.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Mix the liver, suet, bacon, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, marjoram, salt, pepper, and nutmeg together.

  2. Bind the mixture with the beaten egg yolks.

Stuff the hare

  1. Stuff the inside of the hare with the forcemeat.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare liver
Adds richness and a soft, moist body to the stuffing.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Provide bulk and absorb moisture, giving the forcemeat a light structure.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when stuffed and cooked.
Bacon
Contributes savory fat and flavor that carries through the stuffing.

The step that matters

Bind the mixture with the beaten egg yolks. Too little yolk leaves the forcemeat crumbly and loose, while too much can make it heavy. Adding the yolks gradually and mixing just until combined helps it hold together when stuffed into the hare.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, bread, parsley, thyme, marjoram, pepper, egg):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, bread, parsley, thyme, marjoram, pepper, egg. 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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