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To Jug Hare

A stew of hare pieces cooked with ham, shallots, onions, herbs, wine, and orange juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Jug Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Do not wash the hare after skinning; wipe it with a clean cloth if necessary.

  2. Season the hare pieces generously.

  3. In a stone jar or jug, layer the hare with ham, shallots, onions, and herbs.

  4. Pour in the red wine and squeeze in the Seville orange juice.

Stew

  1. Seal the jar tightly with a bladder or leather and brown paper.

  2. Place the jar in a pot of boiling water, ensuring the water does not enter the jar.

  3. Stew the mixture until the meat is tender.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour, helping to tenderise the meat during stewing.
Ham or fine bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat that enriches the stewing liquid.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and aroma as they soften and blend into the sauce.
Onions
Break down during stewing to add body, sweetness and savoury depth.
Seville orange juice
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich flavours and helps balance the wine.

The step that matters

Sealing the jar. If the jar is not sealed tightly, steam and liquid escape and the contents dry out or the water bath can leak in. A tight seal keeps moisture trapped so the meat cooks gently in its own juices.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, shallot, onion, thyme, parsley, marjoram, lemon):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, shallot, onion, thyme, parsley, marjoram, lemon. 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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