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Superlative Hare Soup

A hearty soup made with rabbit, ham, onions, herbs, and port wine, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Superlative Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cut the rabbits into joints and place them in a large soup pot with the ham, fried onions, mace, thyme, marjoram, and beef stock.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil and let it stew for 2 hours, longer if the rabbits are old.

Finish the soup

  1. Strain the soup and finely pound the meat from the rabbits and ham.

  2. Add the pounded meat back into the pot with the cooking liquid, French roll crumbs, and port wine.

  3. Simmer for 20 minutes, then rub through a sieve.

  4. Heat until very hot but do not boil, then season with salt and cayenne before serving.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the main meat, which is pounded and returned to the soup for body.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and meaty richness to the broth.
Beef stock
Forms the liquid base, adding depth of savoury flavour.
French roll crumbs
Thicken the soup as they absorb liquid and break down during simmering.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and a rich, fruity depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Heat until very hot but do not boil. Once the pounded meat and crumbs are in, boiling can make the soup separate and turn grainy or dull. Gentle heating keeps it smooth and lets the port and seasoning blend in.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, carrot, parsley, ham, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, carrot, parsley, ham, thyme, marjoram. 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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