Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hare
Soak the cleaned hare in a game marinade all day, turning occasionally.
Remove the hare from the marinade, wipe it dry, and stuff it with bacon and turkey stuffing.
Fry minced kidneys and heart with onion, cool, pound, and mix with the stuffing.
Truss the hare by securing the hind and fore legs with skewers.
Lard the back of the hare with bacon slices, securing them with skewers or tape.
Roast and brown
Wrap the hare in oiled paper and roast it, basting constantly with melted butter, vinegar, and water.
Remove the bacon strips near the end of cooking and dredge the back with flour to brown the skin.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,592 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Is the main protein, cooked whole so its meat stays moist during roasting.
- Fat bacon
- Lards the back, adding fat that bastes the lean meat and flavours it as it renders.
- Onion
- Adds sweetness and aroma to the kidney and heart mixture stuffed into the hare.
- Flour
- Dusted on the back near the end, it helps the skin brown and crisp.
- Melted butter or beef suet
- Fat for basting, adding richness and helping the surface brown and stay moist.
- Vinegar
- Adds a little acidity to the basting liquid, sharpening the flavour of the game meat.
The step that matters
Basting constantly while roasting. Lean game meat dries out easily in the oven. Frequent basting with fat and liquid keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly, so the wrapping paper must be oiled and the basting kept up throughout.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, butter, vinegar, flour):
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Chivefits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, butter, vinegar, flour. 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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