Why it works: Butter and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Roast Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the bones from the back and thighs of the hare using a sharp knife, being careful not to cut through the skin.
Prepare double the usual quantity of forcemeat and use it to restore the legs to their original shape and fill the body.
Line the body with delicate slices of bacon.
Sew up the hare and truss it as usual.
Roast and serve
Lard the hare if convenient and baste it generously with butter while roasting.
Serve with a sauce made by melting currant jelly in rich brown gravy.
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.
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hare
- Lean, strongly flavoured meat that the other ingredients moisten and enrich.
- Forcemeat
- Fills the body and keeps the lean meat moist as it cooks.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the meat as it roasts.
- Butter
- Adds fat for basting, promoting a golden, browned surface.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and fruity tartness that balances the rich gravy.
- Rich brown gravy
- Provides the liquid base and savoury depth of the sauce.
The step that matters
Basting the lean hare. Hare is very lean, so it dries out easily. Generous basting with butter adds fat to the surface, helping keep the meat moist and encouraging even browning.
“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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