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Gateau De Levraut, or Hare Cake

A hare meat cake baked with herbs, spices, eggs, butter, and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gateau De Levraut, or Hare Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the fillets and thick flesh from the hares into small pieces and remove the thin skin.

  2. Shred and chop the meat finely, then spread it on a clean table.

  3. Add grated nutmeg, pounded spice, truffles, pepper, salt, and chopped herbs to the meat.

  4. Beat the whole eggs and yolks together, then mix them into the meat mixture.

  5. Pour in the melted butter and combine everything well.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a stew pan with slices of bacon and pour the meat mixture into it.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 hours.

  3. Remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan.

  4. Dip the cake in hot water, then turn it out onto a dish.

  5. Slice thinly and arrange neatly on the dish, garnished with savory jelly.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Hare meat
Forms the main body of the cake, giving it its substance and sliced firmness.
Eggs
Bind the meat together and set during baking to hold the cake's shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the cooked meat from drying out.
Truffles
Contribute a deep, earthy aroma that flavours the whole cake.

The step that matters

Baking at a low temperature. A slow oven lets the eggs set gently so the cake firms evenly without curdling or drying. Too much heat can make the egg proteins tighten harshly and squeeze out moisture, leaving a grainy, dry slice.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, pepper, egg, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, pepper, egg, butter. 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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