Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Game and Gravy
Ingredients
Directions
Stuff the hare
Mix the herbs, lemon rind, cayenne pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and eggs in a bowl.
Stuff the mixture into the cleaned hare and sew it up.
Roast
Hang the hare at a distance from the fire to roast.
Melt dripping in a pan and baste the hare frequently to keep it moist.
Roast for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the hare.
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.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
- Eggs
- Bind the stuffing so it holds together inside the hare.
- Bread crumbs
- Add bulk and soak up moisture to make the stuffing tender.
- Dripping
- Adds fat that coats the meat, helping it stay moist and brown while roasting.
The step that matters
Basting frequently. Hare is a lean meat that dries out easily over a long roast. Regular basting with melted fat coats the surface, slowing moisture loss and helping the outside brown.
“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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