Name: A Less Expensive Hare Soup
Ingredients: 2 pounds neck or shin of beef; 1 hare, well washed and cut into joints; 1 gallon cold water; 1½ ounces coarse sea salt; 2 onions, chopped; 1 large head of celery, chopped; 3 medium carrots, chopped; 1 teaspoon black peppercorns; 6 cloves

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

A Less Expensive Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

In a large pot, combine beef, hare, and cold water. Bring to a boil and skim thoroughly.
Add salt, onions, celery, carrots, peppercorns, and cloves. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 3 hours or until hare is tender.

Prepare the meat and bread

Remove hare joints, cut meat from bones, and mince finely.
Soak the crumb of 2 rolls in a little boiling soup, then press dry in a cloth.

Finish and serve

Mix minced meat with soaked bread and strain the soup.
Season with cayenne and serve hot.

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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,668 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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, gamey flavor to the soup.
Neck or shin of beef: Adds body and gelatin to the broth as it simmers slowly.
Rolls (in the method): Soaked bread thickens the soup and binds the minced meat.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth after it boils. Foam and impurities rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Removing them early keeps the soup clear and free of bitter, muddy flavors.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, celery, carrot):

Parsleyfits better
Cuminfits better
Thymefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, celery, carrot. 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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A Less Expensive Hare Soup