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Hare Soup

A hearty stew made with hare, beef, vegetables, herbs, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine the hare, allspice, mace, salt, black pepper, parsley, lemon thyme, winter savory, water, ham, beef, carrots, and onions in a stew-pan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce the liquid to 3 quarts.

  4. Remove the hare from the pot.

  5. Strain the soup over the hare.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the port wine.

  2. Bring the soup to a boil before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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 and rich flavour that the broth is built around.
Beef
Adds body and savoury depth to the stock as it simmers.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and a fruity aroma that rounds out the savoury broth.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down into the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the stock.

The step that matters

Reduce the liquid to 3 quarts. Simmering concentrates the flavour of the stock by evaporating water. Reducing too little leaves the soup thin and weak, while reducing too far can make it overly salty and intense.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, pepper, parsley, lemon, thyme, winter savory, ham):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, pepper, parsley, lemon, thyme, winter savory, ham. 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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