Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Broiled and Hashed Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Broil the hare
Season the legs or wings of the hare with salt and pepper.
Rub the seasoned parts with cold butter.
Broil the hare.
Serve it very hot.
Warm the other parts with gravy and a little stuffing.
Serve them separately.
Bake and pot the hare
Bake the hare with butter after seasoning.
Remove the meat from the bones.
Beat it in a mortar.
Add salt, mace, pepper, and melted butter mixed with a spoonful or two of the hare's gravy. Mix well.
Place into small pots, covering with butter.
Bake the legs and back at the bottom of the jar to keep them moist.
Place the bones over them.
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.
-
Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + macetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,405 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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
- Provides the main meat, which is cooked by broiling or baking and served whole or pounded.
- Cold butter
- Rubbed on the meat to add richness and moisture, and melted butter helps bind the pounded meat.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savoury flavour when warmed with the other parts and mixed into the pounded meat.
- Stuffing
- Warmed with gravy to accompany the other parts of the hare.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper):
- Parsleyfits better
- Sagefits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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