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 ↓
To Roast Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin the hare and wash it thoroughly in cold and then warm water.
Soak the hare in water for 1-2 hours.
If the hare is old, lard it to make it tender.
Optionally, soak in vinegar to tenderize further.
Roast
Roast the hare for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Baste with butter and dredge with flour towards the end of cooking.
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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Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,652 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; the soaking and larding are used to tenderize its meat.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown as it is basted over the hare.
- Flour
- Dredged over the hare near the end, it helps form a browned, crisp outer crust.
- Vinegar
- Its acidity softens the meat when used optionally as a soak for further tenderizing.
The step that matters
Baste with butter and dredge with flour towards the end of cooking. Adding butter and flour too early can burn before the meat is cooked through. Adding them near the end lets the fat and flour brown into a crust without scorching.
“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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