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Roasted Hare, and Rich Gravy Sauce

Roasted hare served with a rich gravy made from its drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roasted Hare, and Rich Gravy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and roast

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

  2. Season the hare with salt and pepper.

  3. Roast the hare in the oven until cooked through, basting with butter.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. For the gravy, collect the drippings from the hare.

  2. In a saucepan, add flour to the drippings and cook until golden.

  3. Gradually stir in water or stock to achieve desired consistency.

  4. Serve the hare with the rich gravy sauce.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Is the main protein, becoming tender and cooked through during roasting.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture during basting and helps the surface brown.
Flour
Cooked in the drippings, it thickens the gravy into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in the drippings. Cooking flour in fat until golden removes its raw taste and starts the browning that gives gravy its color and flavor. Adding liquid too quickly can cause lumps, so stir gradually.

“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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