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Hare Soup

A hearty soup made from hare, mace, onions, red herring, morels, red wine, water, barley or sago, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Onion and barley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,166 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the stock

  1. Combine hare, mace, salt, onions, red herring, morels, red wine, and water in a covered pot.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 hours, or simmer in a boiling water bath for the same time.

  3. Strain the soup into a separate pot.

Prepare the thickening

  1. Boil barley or sago in water until cooked.

  2. Scald the hare's liver in boiling water for 2 minutes.

  3. Rub the liver through a sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the liver, barley or sago, and butter to the soup, stirring gently without boiling.

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. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Onion + red winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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 rich flavour as the soup slowly cooks down.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth, helping to balance the rich meat flavour.
Pearl barley or sago
Swells during cooking and gives the soup body and a thicker texture.
Butter
Adds fat, giving the finished soup a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Liver (in the method)
Pureed into the soup, it adds richness and helps thicken the broth.

The step that matters

Stirring in the liver without boiling. Liver proteins can curdle and turn grainy when boiled, so the soup should be stirred gently and kept just below a boil once the liver and butter go in.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, red wine, barley, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, red wine, barley, butter. 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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