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A Hare Pie

A pie made with hare, seasoned with mace, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and butter, baked with force-meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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A Hare Pie

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

A Hare Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Cut the hare into pieces and season well with mace, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  2. Place the hare in a jug with ½ cup of butter.

  3. Cover the jug tightly with paste or a cloth.

  4. Set the jug in a pot of boiling water.

  5. Let the contents stew for 1.5 hours.

  6. Remove the jug from the pot.

  7. Let the contents cool.

Assemble and bake the pie

  1. Prepare a rich force-meat.

  2. Raise the pie.

  3. Place the force-meat in the bottom of the pie.

  4. Add the hare with its gravy to the pie.

  5. Cover the pie with the lid.

  6. Decorate the top with flowers or leaves.

  7. Bake the pie for 1.5 hours.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
Forms the main body of the pie, providing meat that becomes tender during slow stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the hare stay tender and flavourful while it stews.
Force-meat
Adds a rich, seasoned layer beneath the hare, contributing moisture and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Let the contents stew for 1.5 hours. The jug must be sealed and stewed gently in boiling water so the hare becomes tender and releases its gravy. Lifting the lid or rushing this stage leaves the meat tough and dry.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, pepper, butter, meat):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, pepper, butter, meat. 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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