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Hare, Stewed

A hearty stew of hare joints simmered with gravy, ham, shallots, herbs, and spices, finished with port and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the hare

  1. Combine the hare joints, gravy, diced ham, shallots, parsley, thyme, minced liver, mace, peppercorns, and butter in a stewpan.

  2. Stew gently for 1½ hours.

  3. Strain the gravy.

  4. Return the strained gravy with the hare to the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the port or claret and mushroom ketchup mixed with ground rice.

  2. Season with salt if needed.

  3. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

  5. Optionally garnish with fried forcemeat balls.

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. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 long, gentle stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the gravy a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Ground rice
Thickens the sauce so it becomes lightly body-rich rather than watery.
Port or claret
Adds acidity and depth of flavour, and helps balance the richness of the gravy.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and aromatic flavour as they soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the ground rice mixture. Ground rice mixed with ketchup must be stirred in smoothly and then simmered, because unmixed starch clumps and thickens unevenly in hot liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, shallot, parsley, thyme, liver, butter, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, shallot, parsley, thyme, liver, butter, flour. 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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