Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Hare, Roast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin and gut the hare, then wash it in warm water followed by cold water.
Stuff the hare with the stuffing.
Cover the hare with fat bacon and truss it.
Roast and serve
Roast the hare for 1 to 1.5 hours, or the leveret for 45 minutes.
Baste frequently with butter, cream, or new milk.
Serve with brown sauce and hot currant jelly.
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.
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Sauce + curranttop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together628 recipes
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Fat bacon
- Covers the lean meat, adding fat that keeps it moist while it roasts.
- Butter, cream, or new milk
- Basting liquid that adds fat and helps the surface brown as it roasts.
The step that matters
Roast the hare for 1 to 1.5 hours, or the leveret for 45 minutes. Lean game meat dries out and toughens if overcooked, so timing matters. Frequent basting and the bacon cover help keep the meat moist while it cooks through.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce):
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Peachfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce. 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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