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Hare Soup

A soup made from hare, mace, onions, salt, herring or anchovies, morels, red wine, water, barley, liver, served over crisped bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 the base

  1. Place the hare pieces in an earthen mug.

  2. Add mace, onions, salt, red herring or anchovies, morels, red wine, and water.

  3. Bake for 3 hours at 400°F (200°C).

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the liquid into a stewpan.

  2. Add boiled barley and the sieved liver to the soup.

  3. Heat gently, stirring until near boiling, then remove from heat.

  4. Serve over crisped bread in a tureen.

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 + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

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

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

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

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 around.
Liver of the hare
Thickens the soup and adds a deeper, richer body when sieved in.
French barley
Adds body and a soft, chewy texture to the soup.
Morels
Add an earthy, aromatic flavour to the broth.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth, helping to extract flavour during the long bake.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they cook down in the liquid.

The step that matters

Heat gently until near boiling. Boiling the soup after the sieved liver is added can cause it to curdle and turn grainy, so it should be heated slowly while stirring.

Swap the mace

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

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

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