Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Hare Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Place the hare pieces at the bottom of a large pot.
Add the beef, ham or bacon, onions, and sweet herbs.
Pour in the boiling water and let it stew until the meat is tender.
Finish and serve
Strain the soup to remove solids and fat.
Reboil the strained soup and stir in the soy sauce.
Serve hot with force-meat balls.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Ham + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,729 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Onion + meattop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,364 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
- Hare
- Provides the main meat and rich, gamey flavour as it stews into the broth.
- Lean beef
- Adds more meat and body to the broth as it becomes tender during stewing.
- Ham or bacon
- Contributes salty, smoky flavour that seasons the broth as it cooks.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they soften in the stew.
- Soy sauce or harvey's sauce
- Adds savoury, umami depth to the finished soup after straining.
The step that matters
Straining the soup. Removing solids and fat clears the broth and keeps it from tasting greasy. Skimming off fat before reboiling gives a cleaner, more balanced flavour.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, sauce, meat):
- Mustardfits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, sauce, meat. 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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