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Jugged Hare

A hare stew cooked in a sealed jar with herbs, onion, and lemon, then thickened with flour.

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 ↓

Jugged Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the hare thoroughly and cut it into serving pieces.

  2. Place the hare pieces in a stone jar with the rump steak, ham or bacon, thyme, marjoram, lemon peel, and onion.

  3. Add water and lemon juice, then tightly cover the jar with a piece of bladder to trap steam.

Steam

  1. Place hay in the bottom of a saucepan, set the jar on top, and fill with water until it reaches 2 inches below the jar's top.

  2. Alternatively, use a steamer to cook the jar.

  3. Boil the water or steam for 3 hours.

Finish the gravy

  1. Once cooked, strain the gravy and remove the onion.

  2. Skim the fat from the gravy, thicken with flour, and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil and pour it over the hare pieces in a deep dish.

  4. For extra flavor, warm port wine and cayenne pepper in the gravy before serving.

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. Lemon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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, gentle steaming in the jar.
Rump steak
Adds meaty richness and body to the gravy as it cooks slowly in the jar.
Ham or bacon
Contributes fat and savoury flavour that carries through into the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the hare pieces.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and gravy.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the gravy when warmed in at the end.

The step that matters

Keeping the jar steaming gently for the full time. Long, gentle moist heat breaks down the tough connective tissue in hare. If the water boils dry or the jar is not sealed to trap steam, the meat can dry out and stay tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, lemon, thyme, marjoram, clove, pepper, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, lemon, thyme, marjoram, clove, pepper, flour. 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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