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Stewed Hare

A stew of hare with onion, chili pepper, tomatoes, salt, water, flour, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stew

  1. Combine the sliced onion, chili pepper, and tomatoes in a stew-pan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the hare pieces as soon as the mixture is boiling.

  4. Add salt and enough hot water to cover the hare.

Finish

  1. When the hare is nearly done, thicken the stew with flour and butter.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, which becomes tender as it simmers slowly in the liquid.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, helping build the flavor base of the stew.
Flour
Thickens the stew by swelling in the hot liquid to give it body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, smoothing the flour-thickened sauce.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth as it softens into the stew.

The step that matters

Thicken the stew near the end. Flour needs to be cooked in hot liquid to thicken fully and lose its raw taste. Adding it too early can cause it to over-reduce or clump, while adding it too late leaves the sauce thin and floury.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, flour, 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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