Name: Potted Hare
Ingredients: 1 hare, cut into pieces; 1 hare liver; ½ cup very fresh butter; Clarified butter for topping; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Liver and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,065 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potted Hare

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Pack the hare pieces and liver in a deep dish with fresh butter.
Cover with oiled paper and bake at 300°F (150°C) until tender.
Drain the hare and let it cool.
Remove the meat from the bones, skin, and sinew.
Season the meat highly and beat it into a paste, adding the reserved gravy.
Pack the mixture into pots, pressing it down well.
Pour clarified butter on top and seal tightly.

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.

Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,375 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).