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Hare Pie

A savory pie made with hare meat, forcemeat, bacon, herbs, and gravy, baked with a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the hare

  1. Season the hare joints with pepper and pounded cloves.

  2. Fry the hare joints in hot butter for 10-15 minutes.

  3. Set the hare joints aside to cool.

Make the forcemeat and gravy

  1. Pound the liver with bacon, shallot, parsley, thyme, and pepper in a mortar.

  2. Gradually add blood until the mixture reaches the right consistency, or substitute with port or egg yolk.

  3. Stew the head and inferior parts of the hare for gravy, using the same seasoning as for jugged hare.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie dish with crust.

  2. Layer the hare and forcemeat alternately inside the pie dish.

  3. Cover with thin slices of bacon.

  4. Pour over the gravy mixed with red currant jelly and port, if desired.

  5. Cover the pie with crust.

  6. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

  7. 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.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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, which becomes tender through frying and long baking.
Blood from the hare
Thickens the forcemeat and binds it to a smooth, spreadable consistency.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the meat and forcemeat moist.
Liver (in the method)
Adds richness and a deep, savoury flavour to the forcemeat.
Gravy
Adds moisture to the pie so the filling does not dry out during baking.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich meat.

The step that matters

Adding the blood gradually to the forcemeat. Adding blood slowly lets the mixture thicken evenly to a smooth, binding consistency, so the forcemeat holds together rather than becoming loose or lumpy.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, clove, butter, shallot, parsley, thyme, egg):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, butter, shallot, parsley, thyme, 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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