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Jugged Hare

A stew of hare, bacon, anchovies, herbs, and spices cooked slowly in a jug.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Jugged Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Wipe the hare with a towel dipped in boiling water to remove loose hairs, then dry thoroughly.

  2. Season the hare pieces with salt and pepper, then fry until brown.

Jug and simmer

  1. Add anchovies, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and lemon peel to the hare.

  2. Layer the seasoned hare and thinly sliced bacon in a wide-mouthed jug or jar.

  3. Pour in 1/2 cup of water, cover the jug tightly, and place it in cold water.

  4. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 to 4 hours, depending on the hare's age.

Finish the gravy

  1. Remove the jug from the kettle, discard any unmelted bacon, and make a gravy with butter and flour.

  2. Add a little catsup and a teaspoon of lemon peel to enhance the flavor.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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 through long, slow simmering in the jug.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the meat as it cooks and melts.
Anchovies
Contribute savory depth that rounds out the flavor of the meat and gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy and carries its flavor.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for the full time. A slow, gentle simmer breaks down the connective tissue in the hare's tough meat. A hard boil can toughen the muscle fibers and dry the meat, so the jug should stay at a low, steady simmer for the full 3 to 4 hours.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, clove, lemon, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, clove, lemon, 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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