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Collared Hare

Collared hare is a stuffed hare stewed with suet, breadcrumbs, anchovy, herbs, spices, bacon, stock, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Collared Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Lay the boned hare flat on a surface.

  2. Prepare forcemeat by mixing suet, bread crumbs, anchovy, parsley, lemon thyme, winter savory, nutmeg, lemon peel, pepper, and salt. Bind the mixture with a raw egg and sprinkle with finely ground mace.

  3. Spread some forcemeat on the hare, then layer with bacon rashers and top with remaining forcemeat.

  4. Fold the hare legs in and roll it tightly, securing with tape.

Stew and finish

  1. Place the hare in a stewpan with stock, bay leaves, cloves, browning sauce, ketchup, and port wine.

  2. Stew gently over low heat for 2 hours.

  3. Once cooked, remove from heat and keep warm.

  4. Take off the tape.

  5. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.

  6. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  7. Strain the gravy over the hare.

  8. Optionally, add forcemeat balls to the dish.

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 + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  4. Winter savory + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hare
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle stewing.
Suet
Adds fat to the forcemeat, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the forcemeat a light, binding body.
Raw egg
Binds the forcemeat so it holds together when the hare is rolled and sliced.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the stewing liquid and gravy.
Flour and butter
Thicken the strained stewing liquid into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Rolling the hare tightly before stewing. A tight, even roll keeps the forcemeat packed and the shape intact, so it does not break apart or leak into the stock during the long gentle stew.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, anchovy, parsley, lemon, thyme, winter savory, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, anchovy, parsley, lemon, thyme, winter savory, 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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