Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,632 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the hare
Rub the hare pieces with a dry cloth and salt. If bloody, wash and dry thoroughly.
Place the hare in a jugging pot or double saucepan with sweet herbs, onion, cloves, lemon rind, and broth or wine.
Cover the jar with a bladder to prevent steam from escaping.
Cook the hare
Fill the outside saucepan with hay and boiling water, ensuring the water does not reach the top of the jar.
Keep the water boiling for three hours until the meat is tender.
Remove the meat and strain the gravy through a fine sieve.
Finish and serve
Thicken the gravy with flour and butter, adding catsup if desired, then boil and strain over the hare.
Prepare pudding for garnish by boiling in a cloth or making balls, which can be fried or simmered in gravy for 10 minutes.
Serve with currant jelly or hunter sauce, and add port wine to the gravy if desired.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,632 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Onion + beeftop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Clove + orangetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,776 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + curranttop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,016 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Orange + curranttop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hare
- Is the meat that becomes tender through long, gentle cooking in its own juices.
- Flour
- Thickens the strained gravy so it clings to the meat.
- Butter
- Enriches the thickened gravy and adds a rounder, glossier texture.
- Onion
- Adds savoury depth and aroma to the broth the hare cooks in.
- Beef broth or port wine
- Supplies liquid that keeps the meat moist and carries flavour into the gravy.
The step that matters
Keep the outer water boiling without letting it reach the jar's top. Gentle, steady heat cooks the hare slowly so connective tissue softens without drying the meat. Water rising over the jar would let liquid enter and dilute the gravy, while uneven heat would leave the meat tough.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, lemon, beef, orange, flour, butter, currant):
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, lemon, beef, orange, flour, butter, currant. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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