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Hashed Hare

A hash of hare pieces cooked in seasoned gravy with vinegar and port wine, then broiled with pepper, salt, and cold butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and port wine work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 598 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Hashed Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hash

  1. Heat the hare pieces thoroughly in the gravy.

  2. Add vinegar and port wine.

Finish the legs

  1. Score the legs, season with pepper and salt, and rub with cold butter.

  2. Broil the legs and serve with the hash or on a separate dish.

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. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Port wine + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hare
Provides the meat, which firms as it cooks and soaks up the surrounding gravy.
Highly seasoned gravy
Supplies moisture and concentrated savoury flavour that the hare absorbs as it heats.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps build the richness of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances the sweetness of the port.
Cold butter
Adds fat that melts over the legs, carrying flavour and encouraging browning under heat.

The step that matters

Broil the legs. Broiling is intense, so the legs can scorch on the outside before the centre heats through. Scoring the legs helps heat reach the thicker parts and lets the rendering fat and seasoning spread evenly.

“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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