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Hare Pie

A savory pie made with hare, shallots, herbs, and Port wine, topped with pastry and served with a wine‑lemon gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Hare Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Cut the hare into pieces and parboil for 2 minutes to cleanse it, then wash well.

  2. Place the hare in a stew pot with shallots, Port wine, thyme, savory, marjoram, parsley, cloves, and allspice.

  3. Cover with veal broth.

  4. Stew until half cooked.

Assemble the pie

  1. Remove prime pieces like the back and legs, leaving the rest to stew longer.

  2. Fill a dish with the reserved pieces and some water.

  3. Line the bottom of the dish with hare stuffing or make forcemeat balls.

  4. Cover with pastry and bake for 1 hour.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Strain the gravy from the trimmings, thicken it, and add ½ cup Port and lemon juice.

  2. Pour it into the pie while hot.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

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 through long stewing with liquid.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the stewing liquid and the gravy.
Shallots
Add a mild savoury aroma that builds the flavour base of the stew.
Veal broth
Supplies moisture and savoury body that cooks the hare and forms the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances the Port.
Pastry
Seals the pie and forms a crisp, browned crust over the filling.

The step that matters

Removing the prime pieces before the rest stews longer. Lean, tender cuts like the back and legs cook faster than the tougher pieces. Removing them at the half-cooked point stops them drying out while the rest finishes becoming tender.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, thyme, marjoram, parsley, clove, allspice, veal):

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Parsnipfits less well
  4. Turnipfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, thyme, marjoram, parsley, clove, allspice, veal. 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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