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Jugged Hare

A stew of hare and rump steak cooked in a sealed jar with herbs, onion, lemon, and optional port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 ↓

Jugged Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the hare thoroughly and cut it into serving pieces.

  2. Place the hare pieces in a stone jar with the rump steak at the bottom.

  3. Add the ham, thyme, marjoram, lemon peel, and onion.

  4. Pour in the water and lemon juice, then cover the jar tightly with a piece of bladder.

Cook

  1. Place the jar in a saucepan, set the jar on top, and add water until it reaches 2 inches below the jar's top.

  2. Boil the water for 3 hours, or use a steamer with a plate over the jar.

  3. Once cooked, strain the gravy and remove the onion.

Finish and serve

  1. Skim the fat from the gravy, thicken it with flour, and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Bring the gravy to a boil and pour it over the hare pieces in a deep dish.

  3. For extra flavor, warm port wine and cayenne pepper in the gravy before serving.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Lemon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 long, gentle moist cooking.
Rump steak
Adds meaty flavor and richness to the juices collected in the jar.
Fat ham or bacon
Contributes savory fat and salty, smoky flavor to the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and helps balance the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the hare pieces.

The step that matters

Keeping the jar sealed and the water simmering. A tight cover traps steam and juices so the hare cooks gently in its own liquid. If the seal leaks or the water boils dry, the meat dries out and the gravy becomes weak.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, lemon, thyme, marjoram, clove, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, lemon, thyme, marjoram, clove, flour, pepper. 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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