Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Scotch Hare Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hare
Skin the hare, preserving the blood, and cut it into pieces.
Wash the hare pieces and place them in a stew pan with ½ cup of butter.
Cover and stew for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Make the soup base
In another saucepan, melt 2 ounces of butter and add 3 tablespoons of flour; brown it nicely.
Mix the preserved blood with 4 quarts of cold water and strain it.
Add the strained mixture and the remaining meat to the browned butter, stirring constantly until it boils.
Combine this with the hare in the stew pan, adding the chopped carrot, celery, and onions.
Simmer and serve
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, and let it boil for 2 to 2.5 hours, depending on the age of the hare.
Before serving, remove all bones, the carrot, and celery.
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.
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 and flavourful during the long simmer.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and is browned with flour to build a nutty, deeper flavour.
- Flour
- Browned in butter to form a roux that thickens the soup and adds toasted flavour.
- Preserved blood (in the method)
- Thickens the broth and adds body and a rich, savoury depth to the soup.
- Onions
- Soften during the long simmer, adding sweetness and savoury background flavour.
The step that matters
Browning the flour in butter. Cooking the flour in fat until nutty brown builds flavour and thickening power; stopping too early leaves a raw, pasty taste, while scorching gives bitterness. Stir steadily for even colour.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, carrot, celery, pepper):
- Parsnipfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, carrot, celery, pepper. 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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