Why it works: Flour and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 340 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roast Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hare
Skin the hare.
Clean the hare.
Remove the feet and eyes.
Wipe the hare with a clean cloth.
Cut the sinews at the back of the hind-quarters and below the fore-legs.
Fill the paunch with veal stuffing.
Sew the paunch up or secure it with a skewer.
Position the legs under the hare as if sitting.
Secure the head between the shoulders with a skewer.
Use another skewer to gather the legs under the paunch.
Double a yard of string.
Place the center of the string on the breast.
Cross the ends over the skewer to secure it.
Roast and serve
Spit the hare.
Roast the hare over a brisk fire for about 45 minutes, basting frequently with butter or dripping.
Sprinkle the hare with salt.
Dust the hare with flour.
Baste the hare with fresh butter until frothy.
Remove the hare from the spit.
Serve the hare with watercress.
Pour brown gravy underneath.
Offer currant jelly on the side.
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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Flour + watercresstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together340 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,381 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + watercresstop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together842 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 cooks to tender, juicy flesh when roasted over steady heat.
- Veal stuffing
- Fills the paunch, adding moisture and flavour to the meat as it roasts.
- Butter or dripping
- Basting fat that carries heat to the surface, promoting browning and a rich flavour.
- Flour
- Dusted on the surface, it helps form a crisp, browned crust.
The step that matters
Basting the hare frequently. Regular basting with fat keeps the surface from drying out and helps it brown evenly, while the meat cooks through over a brisk fire.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, watercress):
- Lemonfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Raisinfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, watercress. 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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