Skip to main content
Main

Hare, Roast

A roasted hare stuffed with forcemeat, seasoned with salt, water, milk, butter, and beef dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Hare, Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Choose a young hare, not more than three-quarters grown. Hang it in a cool, dry place for 3-4 days without opening.

  2. Remove the liver and heart, scald them, and wipe the inside of the hare dry daily, dusting with pepper.

  3. If the hare seems too old, soak it in vinegar and water for 1 hour before cooking.

  4. Skin and wash the hare inside, wipe it with a damp cloth, and dry it.

  5. Pierce the neck and blood-settled areas with a sharp knife and hold it in lukewarm water to draw out the blood.

  6. Fill the hare with forcemeat, sew it up, and truss it firmly.

Roast and baste

  1. Start roasting the hare at a distance from the fire, then move it closer once it is hot throughout.

  2. Baste constantly to prevent it from drying out, starting with salt and water for the first 15 minutes.

  3. After 15 minutes, discard the saltwater and baste with 1½ pints of milk until it dries up, then finish with butter or beef dripping.

  4. When nearly done, flour the hare and baste with butter until nicely browned.

  5. Roast until done; a moderate-sized hare takes 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

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

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 is kept moist by constant basting during roasting.
Good forcemeat
Stuffs the cavity, adding moisture and flavour as the hare cooks.
Milk
Basting liquid that reduces to a coating, adding richness and helping the surface brown.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and, with flour, helps the surface turn golden brown.
Beef dripping
Fat for basting that adds richness and promotes even browning.

The step that matters

Basting constantly with milk until it dries up. Lean game meat dries out easily over long roasting. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist, and milk solids brown as the liquid evaporates, so the coating must be watched to avoid scorching.

“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.

More roasted hare recipes

with Cream Sauce 3 See all 96 →

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes