Name: To Roast Hare
Ingredients: 1 hare; coarse sea salt; crumbs of bread; chopped parsley; 2 tablespoons finely chopped beef or veal suet; 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; 1 piece of liver, boiled and finely chopped or grated

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast Hare

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

Keep the hare with the skin on and pouched for up to three weeks in cold weather.
Cut off the feet and begin skinning from the hind legs to the head, avoiding tearing the ears.
Soak and wash the hare in several waters, then wipe it dry.

Stuff and roast

Stuff the hare with bread crumbs, parsley, suet, lemon peel, nutmeg, and chopped liver.
Roast in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,997 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare: Provides the lean meat that is the main component of the dish.
Crumbs of bread: Absorb moisture and juices, keeping the stuffing soft and light.
Beef or veal suet: Adds fat that melts during roasting, adding moisture and richness to the stuffing.
Piece of liver: Adds savory depth and body to the stuffing.

“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.