Name: Hare, Hashed
Ingredients: cold roast hare, cut into pieces; 2 cups gravy (or water if not enough); 1 tablespoon red-currant jelly; salt and pepper to taste; flour for dredging; ⅓ cup port wine

Why it works: Currant and port wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 356 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Hare, Hashed

Ingredients

cold roast hare, cut into pieces
2 cups gravy (or water if not enough)
1 tablespoon red-currant jelly
salt and pepper to taste
flour for dredging
⅓ cup port wine

Directions

Make the gravy

In a saucepan, combine gravy, hare trimmings, red-currant jelly, salt, and pepper.
Simmer gently for 20 minutes.
If less than 2 cups of gravy remains, add water and simmer longer.
Strain the gravy and return it to the saucepan.

Add the hare and serve

Dredge hare pieces in flour and add to the gravy along with port wine.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
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.

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.

Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + port winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,804 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Flour + port winetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,167 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + flourtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,077 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast hare: Provides the meat that is warmed through and becomes tender in the simmering gravy.
Flour: Coats the hare pieces, helping to thicken the gravy slightly and give it body.
Red-currant jelly: Adds sweetness and a fruity tang that balances the rich, savoury gravy.
Port wine: Adds depth, sweetness and aroma to the gravy as it simmers.