Why it works: Pepper and port wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,804 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
Hare Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hare
Wash the hare joints thoroughly and soak in cold water for some time.
Dry the hare and season it with pounded doves, black pepper, and Jamaica pepper.
Assemble and bake
Place the seasoned hare in a dish and add brown stock and port wine.
Cover the dish with puff pastry.
Bake until the pastry is golden and the filling is hot.
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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Pepper + port winetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,804 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hare
- Forms the main meat filling that becomes tender during the long, moist cooking.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the golden, flaky crust that seals and covers the filling.
- Brown stock
- Adds liquid and savoury flavour, keeping the meat moist as it cooks.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the braising liquid.
- Doves
- Adds rich, gamey meat and seasoning to the filling.
The step that matters
Bake until the pastry is golden and the filling is hot. The pastry browns through dry oven heat while the filling must heat through fully. Stopping early leaves the crust pale and the meat underheated, while overbaking can dry the filling.
“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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