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Hare En Daube—

A French stew of hare with bacon, herbs, carrots, onions, and calf's feet, simmered in wine and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Hare En Daube—

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the hare in half after skinning and cleaning it.

  2. Layer seasoned bacon in the bottom of a stewpan.

  3. Place the hare pieces on top of the bacon.

  4. Add the bundle of herbs, carrots, onions, calf's feet, and breast of bacon.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, then add the broth and white wine.

  6. Cover with buttered paper and seal the pot tightly.

Stew and strain

  1. Stew gently for three hours.

  2. Remove from heat, drain the hare, and skim the liquid.

  3. Strain the liquid.

  4. Let it cool; it can be served hot or cold.

Serve

  1. For serving hot, make a roux with flour and butter, moisten with the strained liquid, and boil until thickened.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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, gentle stewing.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the meat and enriches the sauce.
Calf's feet
Release gelatin into the liquid, giving body and a lightly set texture when cooled.
White wine
Adds acidity that helps tenderize the meat and brightens the braising liquid.
Onions
Build savory sweetness and depth as they soften into the braising liquid.
Flour
Thickens the strained liquid into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter.

The step that matters

Stew gently for three hours. Low, slow heat lets collagen and connective tissue break down into gelatin, making the hare tender. Boiling hard toughens the meat and clouds the liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, pepper, thyme, basil, clove, carrot, white wine):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, pepper, thyme, basil, clove, carrot, white wine. 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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