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Jugged Hare

A stew of hare simmered slowly with stock, sherry, and spices, served with fried hominy garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Jugged Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Skin, clean, and joint the rabbit or hare; cut the back into two pieces and sever every joint.

  2. Fry the sliced onion in hot dripping until pale brown. Add the meat, seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour, and cook for 10 minutes, turning often.

Layer and simmer

  1. In an agate-iron saucepan, layer chopped fat salt pork, sprinkle with onion, parsley, and paprika.

  2. Place the pieces of hare on top and cover with another layer of chopped pork and onion. Optionally, add a few bits of fresh tomato.

  3. Pour in 1 cup of cold weak stock that has had a stalk of celery boiled in it, then removed.

  4. Fit on a tight lid, set the saucepan in a vessel of cold water, and bring slowly to a boil.

  5. Maintain a gentle boil for 3 hours or until the meat is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the pieces of hare and thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  2. Stir in currant jelly and lemon juice, simmer for 1 minute, then pour in sherry and mix well.

  3. Serve the sauce over the meat and garnish with triangles of fried hominy.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit or hare
Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long, gentle simmer.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that enriches the gravy and the meat.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body to the sauce, balancing the savoury gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury gravy.
Sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a fruity, slightly acidic note to the sauce.

The step that matters

Maintain a gentle boil for 3 hours. A vigorous boil toughens the meat and can break up the pieces, while a slow, gentle simmer lets connective tissue break down so the hare becomes tender.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, pepper, flour, pork, parsley, celery):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, pepper, flour, pork, parsley, celery. 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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