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Forcemeat Balls with Hare

Forcemeat balls made with hare, bread crumbs, liver, shallot, and seasonings, baked with port wine and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Winter savory and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 221 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls with Hare

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the forcemeat balls

  1. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, winter savory, chopped liver, shallot, and black pepper.

  2. Mix in the egg until well combined.

  3. Form the mixture into small balls.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the balls between pieces of hare in a baking dish.

  2. Pour port wine and weak gravy over the hare.

  3. Cover with a good paste.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for two hours.

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. Winter savory + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together221 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Winter savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  5. Bread + shallottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,245 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Liver
Adds rich, savory depth and a firm but tender body to the forcemeat.
Egg
Binds the crumbs and liver so the mixture holds together in balls.
Bread crumbs
Soaks up moisture and lightens the forcemeat so it stays tender.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and aroma and helps flavor the braising liquid.

Swap the winter savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, liver, shallot, pepper, egg, port wine):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Winter savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, liver, shallot, pepper, egg, port wine. 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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