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Hare Soup

A hearty soup made with hare, ham, onions, stock, herbs, and wine, thickened with flour and blood.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Paunch the hare.

  2. Carefully remove the blood.

  3. Add a few drops of vinegar and set aside.

  4. Joint the hare.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a large pot.

  2. Fry the ham, hare, and onions until browned.

  3. Add the flour and fry until dark brown.

  4. Pour in the stock.

  5. Add the mace.

  6. Add the peppercorns.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Skim.

  9. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours.

  10. Strain the soup.

  11. Remove the meat from the bones.

  12. Pass the meat through a mincer.

  13. Rub it through a fine sieve.

  14. Mix the stock into the meat.

  15. Bring the soup to a boil gradually.

  16. Strain in the blood and wine mixture.

  17. Cook until thickened without boiling.

  18. Season to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Serve.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil.

  3. Sprinkle in the tapioca.

  4. Boil gently until clear.

  5. Cool slightly.

  6. Mix the yolks, cream, and milk together.

  7. Strain into the soup.

  8. Cook gently without boiling until the yolks thicken.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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
Supplies the main meat and rich, gamey flavour of the soup.
Butter
Fat for frying that carries flavour and helps the meat and onions brown.
Flour
Browned in the fat, it adds colour and nutty flavour and thickens the stock.
Onions
Browned until sweet, they build the savoury base of the soup.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid body of the soup that the meat is blended into.
Blood
Stirred in, it thickens the soup and deepens its colour.

The step that matters

Keep the soup below a boil once the blood and yolks go in. Blood and egg yolks contain proteins that thicken the soup but curdle and turn grainy when overheated. Heating gently and stopping short of boiling keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, flour, onion, pepper, sherry. 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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