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Civet of Hare

A stew of hare pieces braised in cognac, wine, broth, and herbs, finished with a reduced sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Red wine and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 575 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Civet of Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Season the hare pieces with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs.

  2. Marinate the hare pieces in cognac for 6-8 hours.

  3. Drain and dry the hare pieces.

Brown and braise

  1. Fry the hare pieces in bacon fat over high heat until lightly browned.

  2. Dust the hare pieces with flour and stir for a few minutes.

  3. Add warm broth and red wine to cover the meat.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Reduce heat, add onions and herbs.

  6. Simmer until the meat is tender.

Finish the sauce and serve

  1. Strain the sauce into a separate pan.

  2. Add vinegar and Harvey sauce to the pan.

  3. Reduce the sauce, skimming off fat.

  4. Trim the meat and place it on a serving dish.

  5. Pour the sauce over the meat.

  6. Serve with glazed onions.

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. Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hare
Provides the rich, gamey meat that becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Bacon fat
Carries high-heat browning that builds deep flavor on the meat's surface.
Flour
Coats the meat and thickens the sauce as it cooks in the liquid.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth, helping to flavor and tenderize the braising liquid.
Onions
Soften during simmering and add sweetness and body to the sauce.
Cognac
Flavors the meat during the marinade and adds aroma to the dish.

The step that matters

Simmer until the meat is tender. Hare is lean and tough, so it needs long, gentle simmering at low heat. Boiling hard toughens the proteins and can leave the meat dry and stringy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, red wine, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, red wine, vinegar, sauce. 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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