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To Roast Hare

A hare stuffed with breadcrumbs, bacon, suet, herbs, and an egg, roasted and basted with milk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Roast Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Wash the hare thoroughly and soak it in water for 1–2 hours.

  2. If the hare is old, lard it or soak it in vinegar.

  3. Wash the hare well in water.

Stuff and cook

  1. Stuff the hare with the prepared stuffing and sew it up.

  2. Baste the hare with milk until half cooked.

  3. Switch to butter for further basting.

  4. If blood settles in the neck, soak it in warm water.

  5. Warm the neck by the fire, nicking the skin to release the blood.

  6. Keep the hare at a distance from the fire initially.

Serve

  1. Serve with rich gravy, melted butter, and currant 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (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 stays moist when basted during cooking.
Milk
Basting liquid that keeps the surface moist and encourages gentle browning.
Butter
Fat for later basting, adding richness and golden browning to the surface.
Bread crumbs
Bulk for the stuffing that absorbs juices and gives the filling body.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Suet
Hard animal fat that adds richness and moisture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Keep the hare at a distance from the fire initially. Intense direct heat browns and dries the outside before the thick interior cooks through. Starting with gentler heat lets the meat cook evenly and stay juicy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, anchovy, pepper, nutmeg, bread, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, anchovy, pepper, nutmeg, bread, egg. 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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