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Yorkshire Hare Cake

A savory cake made from hare, ham, eggs, and gravy jelly, baked in an earthen pot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Yorkshire Hare Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Remove the flesh from the hare's bones in large pieces and set aside in a covered dish.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the hare bones, calf's foot, carrot, onion, bay leaf, celery, parsley, thyme, and peppercorns.

  3. Cover with stock or water and simmer gently until the gravy is strong and flavorful.

  4. If the liquid isn't strong enough to gel when cold, dissolve 2 ounces of gelatine in it.

  5. Strain the jelly to remove fat and spread a thin layer in the bottom of an earthen potting pan.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the collops of hare, thin slices of ham, and sliced hard-boiled eggs in the pan, alternating with gravy jelly.

  2. Season each layer with a sprinkle of herbs and spices.

  3. Cover the pan with a coarse paste made of flour and water.

  4. Place the pan in a dripping tin filled with boiling water and keep boiling until cooked, about 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Chill and serve

  1. Remove from the oven and let cool in a cold place overnight.

  2. Turn out onto a dish, garnish with parsley, and serve as a luncheon, breakfast, or supper dish.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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
Forms the meaty body of the cake, becoming tender as it simmers and is cooked.
Calf's foot
Adds natural gelatine so the gravy sets firmly when cold.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm texture and a mild, rich contrast to the meat layers.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour and a firmer bite between the layers.
Gelatine
Helps the strained gravy set into a sliceable jelly when it is not firm enough alone.

The step that matters

Strain and chill the jelly before layering. The gravy must be strong enough to gel when cold, or the layers will not hold together when the cake is turned out. Removing fat keeps the jelly clear and prevents a greasy surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, carrot, clove, celery, parsley, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, carrot, clove, celery, parsley, thyme. 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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