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Jugged Hare

A stew of hare cooked in a sealed jar with herbs, onion, and lemon, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Jugged Hare

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Wash the hare thoroughly and cut it into serving pieces.

  2. Place the hare pieces in a stone jar with the rump steak at the bottom.

  3. Add the ham or bacon, lemon thyme, sweet marjoram, lemon peel, and onion with cloves.

  4. Pour in the water and lemon juice, then tightly cover the jar with a piece of bladder.

Cook

  1. Place the jar in a saucepan, set it on top, and fill with water to within 2 inches of the jar's top.

  2. Alternatively, use a steamer to cook the jar.

  3. Boil the water or steam for 3 hours.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. After cooking, strain the gravy and remove the onion.

  2. Skim the fat from the gravy, thicken with flour, and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil and pour it over the hare pieces in a deep 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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Lemon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
Is the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle cooking in its own juices.
Rump steak
Adds meaty flavour and body to the gravy as it cooks slowly with the hare.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, smoky richness that seasons the meat and gravy during the long cook.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the hare pieces instead of running thin.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and balances the gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the jar covered and the water at the set level during the 3-hour cook. A tight seal and steady gentle simmer keep the juices inside the jar, so the meat braises in its own liquid. Boiling hard or letting the water drop lets liquid escape and can leave the meat dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, lemon, thyme, marjoram, clove, flour, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, lemon, thyme, marjoram, clove, flour, 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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