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Jugged Hare or Rabbit

A stew of hare or rabbit pieces simmered in beef gravy with onion, wine, and mushroom ketchup, served with fried meat balls and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Jugged Hare or Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Dredge the hare or rabbit pieces in flour.

  2. Fry the pieces in butter until nicely browned, seasoning with pepper, salt, and cayenne.

Jug and simmer

  1. In a jar, combine the browned pieces with the onion and beef gravy.

  2. Cover the jar tightly and place it in a deep pan of cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3-4 hours, depending on the age of the meat.

  4. Remove the jar from the water and shake it over the fire for a few minutes.

  5. Add mushroom ketchup, wine, and the butter rolled in flour.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried force meat balls and red currant jelly.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Rabbit + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 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

Hare or rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, slow simmer.
Flour
Coats the pieces so they brown well, and thickens the sauce when rolled into butter.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the meat and adds richness to the finished sauce.
Beef gravy
Forms the savoury liquid that braises the meat and carries its flavour.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth to the sauce as it is finished.

The step that matters

Simmer gently in the sealed jar. Slow, moist heat is needed to break down the connective tissue in older game. A hard boil or a loose lid lets liquid escape and can leave the meat dry and tough.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, flour, butter, pepper, beef, onion, mushroom):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, flour, butter, pepper, beef, onion, mushroom. 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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