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Mock Hare

A stuffed sirloin steak filled with force‑meat, roasted with carrot, onion, and corned pork, served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mock Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Beat the sirloin steak with the flat of a hatchet.

  2. Trim the edges.

  3. Marinate the steak in vinegar and oil for 2 hours.

  4. Place the force-meat seasoned with parsley, pepper, salt, and onion juice in the center of the steak.

  5. Fold the sides of the steak to enclose the filling.

  6. Sew the edges together.

Roast

  1. Place the steak in a covered roaster on a bed of minced carrot and onion.

  2. Cover the steak with slices of fat corned pork.

  3. Secure with cotton strings.

  4. Pour 2 cups of weak stock or a mixture of butter and water around the steak.

  5. Cover and roast for 1 hour.

  6. Uncover and remove the pork.

  7. Baste the steak with butter.

  8. Brown it.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Transfer to a hot dish.

  2. Keep warm in an open oven.

  3. Strain the gravy.

  4. Thicken with browned flour.

  5. Add lemon juice, mustard, and wine.

  6. Serve the pork around the beef.

  7. Pour some gravy over it.

  8. Serve the rest in a boat.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sirloin steak
Forms the main meat that is stuffed, rolled, and roasted until tender and browned.
Force-meat
Bread crumbs and fat pork add moisture and richness to the stuffing as it cooks.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the beef before roasting.
Browned flour
Thickens the strained gravy and adds a toasted, deeper flavour.
Fat corned pork
Slices laid over the steak baste it with fat and add savoury flavour as they cook.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Covered roasting, then browning. Roasting covered in stock keeps the stuffed steak moist and tender; the later uncovering and butter basting is what gives the surface its colour. Browning too early or too long can dry the meat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, meat, bread, pork, parsley, pepper, carrot):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, meat, bread, pork, parsley, pepper, carrot. 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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