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Hare, Liver Sauce for

A sauce made from hare liver simmered in beef gravy, onion, chili vinegar, currant jelly, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hare, Liver Sauce for

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Simmer the liver in good beef gravy for 15 minutes.

  2. Finely mince the liver and the small onion.

  3. Add chili vinegar, currant jelly, and port wine to the mixture.

  4. Stir the sauce over the heat until hot.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce warm.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Beef + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
Provides the main body and rich, meaty flavor of the sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Chili vinegar
Adds acidity and a sharp, spicy bite to cut through the rich liver.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer the liver in gravy. Liver turns grainy and tough when overcooked, so it should be simmered gently rather than boiled hard. Gentle heat keeps the texture tender enough to mince and blend into the sauce.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Applefits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, beef, onion, vinegar, 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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