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Hare En Salmis, or in a Hash

A stew of roasted hare, onion, butter, flour, and beef stock simmered for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hare En Salmis, or in a Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the chopped onion in butter with the bay leaf until golden brown.

  2. Stir in the flour until well mixed with the butter.

  3. Gradually add the beef stock or gravy, stirring until it boils.

Finish the hash

  1. Add the chopped hare and let it simmer gently for 1 hour.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the gentle simmer.
Onion
Browning in butter builds sweetness and savoury depth into the base.
Butter
Carries the frying of the onion and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Beef stock or gravy
Forms the liquid that the hash simmers in, adding savoury flavour and moisture.

The step that matters

Adding the stock gradually while stirring. Adding liquid slowly to the butter and flour mixture and stirring keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, beef):

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, beef. 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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