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Hare Soup

A hearty soup made from hare, mace, onions, red herring, morels, red wine, water, and pre-cooked barley, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Onion and barley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,166 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Place the hare pieces in an earthen jar with mace, onions, salt, red herring, morels, red wine, and water.

Cook and strain

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 hours.

  2. Strain the liquid into a stewpan and add the pre-cooked barley.

Finish and serve

  1. Scald the liver, rub it through a sieve, and add it to the soup.

  2. Heat the soup on the stove, stirring until near boiling.

  3. Place toasted bread in a tureen and pour the soup over it.

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. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Barley + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Red wine + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (whiskey, malt).

  5. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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 and rich flavour that the broth is built on.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth, helping to balance the rich meat flavour.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften during the long cooking.
Morels
Contribute an earthy, aromatic flavour to the broth.
French barley
Adds body and a soft, chewy texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 hours. Long, gentle cooking in a covered jar breaks down the connective tissue in the hare, making the meat tender and the broth rich. Too little time leaves the meat tough and the flavour thin.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, red wine, barley, bread):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, red wine, barley, bread. 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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