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Jugged Hare

A stew of hare, lean rump steaks, ham, herbs, lemon, and onion, cooked in a jar and thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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, putting the lean rump steaks at the bottom.

  3. Add the ham or bacon, thyme, marjoram, lemon peel, and onion to the jar.

  4. Pour in the water and lemon juice, then tightly cover the jar with a piece of bladder.

Cook

  1. Place hay in the bottom of a saucepan, set the jar on top, and fill the saucepan with water to within 2 inches of the jar's top.

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

  3. Simmer for 3 hours, ensuring the water remains boiling.

Finish the gravy

  1. Once done, 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 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 simmering.
Lean rump steaks
Add rich meaty flavour to the gravy as they cook slowly in the jar.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, savoury fat that flavours the meat and gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance the rich meat.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat rather than running thin.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling during the 3-hour simmer. Long, steady heat is what breaks down the tough connective tissue in hare. If the water drops below a simmer, the meat cooks unevenly and stays 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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