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Hare Soup

A hearty soup made from hare, vegetables, herbs, and port, simmered in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Hare Soup

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 ↓

Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Wash and joint the hare as if preparing for jugging.

  2. Dry the pieces and place them in a pan with the ham, vegetables, herbs, and heated clarified fat. Stir until well browned.

Make the soup

  1. Add the water or stock and stir continuously until it boils.

  2. Skim the surface well, add a little salt, and skim again.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 and flavour of the soup.
Clarified fat
Carries heat evenly so the hare browns well before liquid is added.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, deeper colour and flavour.
Port
Adds a little acidity and sweetness that rounds out the rich, gamey broth.

The step that matters

Browning the hare pieces. Stirring until the meat and vegetables are well browned builds the deep, roasted flavours that the broth depends on. Pale meat at this stage gives a flat, weak soup, and the surface must be dry for browning to happen rather than steaming.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, mushroom, ketchup, thyme, marjoram, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, mushroom, ketchup, thyme, marjoram, parsley. 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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