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Jugged Hare, or Civet of Hare

A hare joint stewed with bacon, shallots and tomato in a covered jar, then served with a thickened sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,523 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Jugged Hare, or Civet of Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bacon into small pieces.

  2. Cut the hare into joints.

  3. Wash and wipe the hare pieces as needed.

Fry and layer

  1. Fry the bacon lightly and remove it from the pan.

  2. In the bacon fat, fry the hare pieces lightly.

  3. Layer the hare, bacon, whole shallots, chopped tomato, flavouring spices, and a little salt in a large jar.

  4. Add stock to the jar, cover with strong paper, and place it in a saucepan with water up to the jar's sides.

  5. Cook until tender, about 2 to 3 hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Make a border with the pastry on a dish and bake until ready.

  2. Remove the hare to the dish.

  3. Add flour, lemon juice, and red currant jelly to the stock in the jar.

  4. Boil the sauce.

  5. Pour the sauce over the hare.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Shallot + red curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together49 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Red currant + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow, moist cooking.
Fat bacon
Its fat enriches the frying and its savoury flavour seasons the slow-cooked meat.
Shallots
Soften during the long cooking and add a mild, sweet onion flavour to the stock.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce when boiled.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity acidity that balances the rich meat and sauce.
Rough puff pastry
Forms a crisp, buttery border around the dish when baked.

The step that matters

Cook until tender in the sealed jar. Long, gentle, moist heat is needed to break down the tough connective tissue in hare. Water kept up to the jar's sides keeps the heat even and prevents the meat from drying out or cooking unevenly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, red currant, lemon, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Kalefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, red currant, lemon, flour. 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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