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Hare Pie

A savory pie made with hare, bacon, onions, red wine, and a forcemeat filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Winter savory and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 406 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Hare Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the hare

  1. Season the hare pieces with pepper, nutmeg, and mace.

  2. Place the hare in a jug with the butter, then seal the jug.

  3. Set it in boiling water.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Make a forcemeat by mixing bacon, onions, red wine, bread crumbs, winter savory, liver, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

  2. Line the bottom of a pie dish with the forcemeat.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the hare and its juices, then cover with the lid.

  2. Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Winter savory + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Winter savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender as it cooks slowly in its own juices.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the meat stay succulent during the gentle cooking.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the forcemeat, keeping it moist as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Bind the forcemeat and soak up liquid, giving it a softer, more cohesive texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat and help it set firm as it bakes.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Sealing the jug before setting it in boiling water. A tight seal traps steam and juices so the hare cooks gently and stays moist. A loose seal lets moisture escape and the meat can dry out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, red wine, bread, winter savory, liver, nutmeg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, red wine, bread, winter savory, liver, nutmeg, pepper. 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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