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To Roast Hare

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Roast Hare

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wipe the hare dry and remove the heart and liver.

  2. Scald the liver for stuffing and mix pepper and ginger to rub inside the hare.

  3. Place a piece of charcoal inside to prevent mustiness.

  4. Soak the hare in water for 1-2 hours, lard it if old, or soak in vinegar and wash well afterwards.

  5. Stuff the hare's belly and sew it up.

  6. Baste with milk until half-cooked, then switch to butter.

  7. If blood settles in the neck, soak in warm water and nick the skin to release it.

  8. Keep the hare at a distance from the fire initially.

  9. Serve with froth, rich gravy, melted butter, and currant-jelly sauce.

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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  5. Liver + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, milk, butter, liver, anchovy, nutmeg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, milk, butter, liver, anchovy, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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