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Mock Hare

A stuffed sirloin steak filled with force‑meat, roasted and served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steak

  1. Beat the sirloin steak with the flat of a hatchet and trim the edges.

  2. Marinate the steak in vinegar and oil for 2 hours.

  3. Place the force-meat in the center of the steak. Fold the sides of the steak over the force-meat. Sew the edges of the steak together.

Roast

  1. Place the steak in a covered roaster on a bed of minced carrot and onion. Cover the steak with thin slices of fat corned pork, securing with cotton strings.

  2. Pour 2 cups of weak stock or a mixture of butter and water around the steak.

  3. Cover and roast for 1 hour.

  4. Uncover the steak. Remove the pork slices. Baste the steak with butter and brown it.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Transfer the steak to a hot dish and keep it warm in an open oven while you strain the gravy.

  2. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  3. Add lemon juice, French mustard, and wine to the gravy.

  4. Serve the pork around the beef, pouring some gravy over it. Serve the rest of the gravy in a 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 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

Sirloin steak
Forms the main meat that is rolled around the stuffing and roasted until tender.
Force-meat
Adds a moist, savoury filling that keeps the rolled steak juicy as it cooks.
Vinegar
Acid in the marinade that gently tenderises the surface of the beef.
Browned flour
Thickens the strained gravy and adds a toasted, deeper colour and flavour.
Fat corned pork
Slices laid over the steak baste it with melting fat as it roasts.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Sewing and securing the rolled steak. If the edges are not closed tightly, the stuffing can leak out during roasting and the steak may open and cook unevenly. Secure seams keep the filling moist inside the meat.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, meat, bread, pork, pepper, onion, butter. 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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