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Hare Pie

A savory pie made with hare, ham, stock, cream, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,370 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Hare Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the hare into joints and divide the back into six pieces, removing the largest bones.

  2. Wash the hare pieces in cold water, dry them, and season with pepper and salt.

Make the stock

  1. In a saucepan, combine the hare pieces and ribs with the water, adding a little salt and pepper.

  2. Boil until reduced to 1 pint, then strain.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the seasoned hare and ham in a pie dish, pour over the prepared stock and cream, and cover with a thick pastry.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for two hours.

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. Cream + hamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 long simmer and bake.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the stock poured over the pie.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that complements the hare.

The step that matters

Boil the stock until reduced to 1 pint. Reducing the stock concentrates its flavour and gelatin, so the finished pie has a rich, well-seasoned filling rather than a thin, watery one.

“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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