Skip to main content
Main

Hare Soup

A soup made with hare, mace, onions, salt, red herring, morels, port wine, water, barley, and served over crispy bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Hare Soup

Why it works: Onion and barley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,166 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In an earthen vessel, combine the hare, mace, onions, salt, red herring, morels, port wine, and water.

  3. Bake the mixture for 3 hours.

  4. Strain the liquid into a stewpan.

Add barley and liver

  1. Boil the barley in water.

  2. Add the boiled barley to the strained liquid.

  3. Scald the liver.

  4. Rub the scalded liver through a sieve.

  5. Add the sieved liver to the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the soup over the fire.

  2. Stir the soup until just about to boil.

  3. Remove the soup from heat.

  4. Serve the soup over crispy bread in a tureen.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  2. Barley + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Mace + port winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together695 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Port wine + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together321 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
Provides the meat and rich body that flavours the whole soup as it slowly bakes.
French barley
Its starch swells as it boils, adding body and thickening the soup.
Onions
Break down during baking to add sweetness and a savoury base.
Port wine
Adds fruity sweetness and depth, and its acidity helps balance the rich meat.
Morels
Contribute an earthy, woodsy aroma that deepens the broth.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the broth.

The step that matters

Stir until just about to boil, then stop. Once the sieved liver is added, a hard boil can make the soup grainy or curdled and dull its smooth texture. Gentle heat keeps the liver blended and the soup silky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, port wine, barley, bread):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, port wine, barley, bread. 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.

More hare soup recipes

Scotch 7Imitation 3 See all 137 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes