Name: Hare Pie
Ingredients: 1 hare, cut into joints; Salt and pepper to taste; Slices of ham; 1 pint (2 cups) water; 1 large glass (1 cup) cream; Pastry for covering

Why it works: Ham and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,370 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Hare Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Cut the hare into joints and divide the back into six pieces, removing the largest bones.
Boil the thin pieces and ribs with a little salt and pepper until reduced to 2 cups, then strain.
Wash the hare pieces in cold water, dry them, and season with pepper and a little salt.

Assemble and bake

Lay slices of ham over the seasoned hare pieces.
Pack the hare pieces neatly in a baking dish, pour the prepared stock over them, and add the cream.
Cover with a thick pastry and bake at 350°F (175°C) for two 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.

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.

Ham + creamtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,370 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 the meat that cooks down tender under the pastry.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, softening the flavour and texture of the cooked filling.
Ham: Adds salty, savoury flavour that layers into the meat and stock.
Water: Used to make the stock, which carries flavour and keeps the filling moist as it bakes.

“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.