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To Roast Hare

A hare roasted with a stuffing of breadcrumbs, parsley, suet, lemon peel, nutmeg, liver, egg, milk, and ketchup, served with gravy and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Roast Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Keep the hare with the skin on in cold weather for up to three weeks.

  2. Cut off the feet and carefully skin the hare from the hind legs to the head.

  3. Soak and wash the hare in several waters, then wipe it dry.

Stuff and truss

  1. Stuff the hare with bread crumbs, parsley, suet, lemon peel, nutmeg, chopped liver, salt, pepper, and moisten with egg, milk, and ketchup.

  2. Sew the skin of the belly closed.

  3. Truss the hare by placing the hind and fore legs flat against the sides, cutting the under sinews to make the hind legs lie flat.

  4. Fix the head between the shoulders with a skewer.

  5. Suspend the hare head downwards while roasting.

Roast and serve

  1. Baste with milk first, then with butter, lightly flouring it.

  2. Roast for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  3. Serve the hare back upwards with rich beef gravy and 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 is cooked slowly to tender, juicy texture.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together during roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and liquids, giving the stuffing body and a softer texture.
Beef or veal suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during roasting.
Hare liver
Contributes a rich, savoury flavour to the stuffing.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting browning and a rich flavour on the surface.

The step that matters

Roast for 1.5 to 2 hours. Hare is lean, so overcooking dries out the meat. Basting regularly with milk and butter adds moisture and fat, helping the surface brown evenly while the inside stays tender.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, bread, parsley, beef, lemon, liver, egg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, parsley, beef, lemon, liver, egg. 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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