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Roast Hare or Rabbit

Roast hare or rabbit stuffed with breadcrumbs, pork fat, marjoram, onion, and seasonings, then baked and served with a currant jelly gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 or Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Sew up the hare with fine cotton and tie the legs closely to the body.

Roast

  1. Place the hare in a roasting pan, back side up, and pour boiling water over it.

  2. Cover with another pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes, basting with butter and water when needed.

  3. Uncover the hare.

  4. Baste with gravy until browned.

  5. Dredge the hare with flour.

  6. Add butter until frothy.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the hare and keep it warm.

  2. Strain the pan juices.

  3. Season the juices.

  4. Thicken with browned flour.

  5. Stir in currant jelly and chopped parsley.

  6. Boil.

  7. Pour some gravy over the hare.

  8. Serve the rest 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. Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hare or rabbit
Is the main meat, cooked whole so it stays moist and tender while roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the juices and pork fat in the stuffing, keeping it moist and tender.
Fat pork
Adds fat that bastes the lean meat from inside, adding juiciness and flavor.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the stuffing and gravy.
Flour
Dredged on the hare and browned flour thickens the pan juices into gravy.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Covering the hare and basting during the first roast. The covered pan traps steam so the meat cooks through gently, while basting adds moisture and fat. Uncovering too early can dry the lean rabbit before it browns evenly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, bread, pork, marjoram, 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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