Skip to main content
Main

Hashed Hare

A stew of hare with mace, allspice, onion, herbs, port wine, and mushroom ketchup, served with toasted bread and red‑currant jelly.

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

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hashed Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Cut the cold hare into neat slices.

  2. Put the head, bones, and trimmings into a stewpan with ½ pint of water.

  3. Add the mace, allspice, onion, and herbs; simmer for nearly an hour.

  4. Strain the gravy and thicken it with butter and flour.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the wine and ketchup, then lay in pieces of hare and any leftover stuffing.

  2. Heat the mixture by the side of the fire for about 5 minutes.

  3. Serve garnished with toasted bread slices and red‑currant jelly.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Port wine + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast hare
Provides the meat that is gently reheated so it becomes tender and savoury in the gravy.
Butter and flour
Thicken the strained gravy so it coats the meat rather than running thin.
Port wine
Adds depth and a rich, slightly sweet fruitiness to the gravy.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the gravy.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and background flavour as it simmers in the stock.
Savory herbs
Infuse the simmering liquid with a herbal aroma that suits the game meat.

The step that matters

Heating the hare by the fire. Gentle heat warms the cooked hare through without boiling it, which would toughen the meat and can make the thickened gravy break or catch on the base.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, pepper, onion, port wine, butter, flour, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, pepper, onion, port wine, butter, flour, mushroom. 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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes