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Forcemeat for Hare

A forcemeat mixture for hare, combining liver, onion, ham, suet, herbs, spices, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liver

  1. Boil the liver of the hare slowly for five minutes.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Mince the liver with the fried onion, ham, suet, lemon rind, parsley, garlic, capers, and mushrooms, then mince everything very fine.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, mixed herbs, salt, pepper, cayenne, and tarragon vinegar.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + caperstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 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

Liver of hare
Forms the meaty base of the forcemeat and gives it its main flavour.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and help it set when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat a lighter, softer body.
Beef suet
Adds fat, which keeps the forcemeat moist and tender.

The step that matters

Mince everything very fine. Fine mincing spreads the fat, liver and aromatics evenly through the mixture, so the forcemeat binds smoothly and has an even texture rather than being coarse or crumbly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, onion, ham, beef, parsley, garlic, capers):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, onion, ham, beef, parsley, garlic, capers. 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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