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Roast Hare

A hare stuffed with breadcrumbs, pork fat, marjoram, onion, pepper, and salt, baked and served with a currant jelly gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Roast Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Stuff the hare with a mixture of bread crumbs, chopped fat pork, sweet marjoram, onion, pepper, and coarse sea salt, moistened with hot water.

  2. Sew up the hare with fine cotton.

  3. Tie the hare's legs close to the body.

  4. Place the hare in a dripping pan, back side up.

  5. Pour boiling water over the hare.

  6. Cover the hare with another pan.

Roast

  1. Bake for 45 minutes, basting with butter and water.

  2. Uncover the hare.

  3. Baste with gravy until browned.

  4. Dredge the hare with flour.

  5. Add butter until frothy.

  6. Remove the hare.

  7. Keep the hare covered on a hot dish while making the gravy.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the pan drippings.

  2. Skim the pan drippings.

  3. Season the pan drippings.

  4. Thicken the pan drippings with browned flour.

  5. Stir in currant jelly and chopped parsley.

  6. Boil the gravy.

  7. Pour some gravy over the hare.

  8. Serve the rest of the gravy in a gravy 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. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
Is the main meat, cooked whole so its stuffing and juices stay moist.
Fat pork
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing and lean meat moist and flavorful during roasting.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, promoting browning on the hare and flavor in the gravy.
Flour
Browned and stirred into the drippings, it thickens the gravy.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the hot water and drippings in the stuffing, keeping it soft rather than dense.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, savory gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the pan drippings with browned flour. Flour must be cooked until browned and stirred smoothly into the drippings; adding it raw or in lumps leaves a pasty taste and an uneven gravy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pork, marjoram, onion, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pork, marjoram, onion, pepper, 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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