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Hare, Stewed in Port

A stew of hare pieces braised in port and claret wine with bacon, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hare, Stewed in Port

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Cut the hare into neat pieces, and each leg in two.

  2. Cut the bacon into strips and lay them on each joint.

Braise

  1. In a large sauté pan, arrange the joints in a single layer.

  2. Sprinkle with black pepper, sweet herbs, shallot, cloves, nutmeg, essence of celery, and grated ham.

  3. Pour equal parts port and claret just to cover the meat.

  4. Cover with greased paper and place the lid on the pan.

  5. Add a weight on top and bring to a gentle boil.

  6. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, shaking occasionally.

Finish and serve

  1. Add a glass of port, brown roux, and glaze, then stir to a boil.

  2. Season with salt to taste and serve on a hot dish with your choice of garnish.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 slow, moist cooking.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the meat as it cooks.
Port wine
Gives sweetness and depth of flavour while helping tenderise the meat in the braising liquid.
Claret wine
Adds acidity and body to the braising liquid, balancing the port's sweetness.
Grated ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour to the braising liquid and meat.
Brown roux
Thickens the cooking liquid into a rich sauce.

The step that matters

Bringing to a gentle boil and keeping it gentle. A vigorous boil toughens meat proteins and can make the liquid reduce too fast. A gentle simmer under a covered lid lets collagen soften slowly, keeping the hare tender and moist.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, wine, pepper, shallot, clove, nutmeg, ham):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, wine, pepper, shallot, clove, nutmeg, ham. 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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