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To Roast Hare

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

To Roast Hare

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash the hare thoroughly and soak it in water for 1-2 hours.

  2. If the hare is old, soak it in vinegar, then wash it well in water.

  3. Prepare a stuffing by mixing the liver, anchovy, bacon, suet, herbs, pepper, salt, nutmeg, onion, breadcrumbs, and egg.

  4. Stuff the hare with the mixture and sew it up.

  5. Baste the hare with milk until half-cooked, then switch to butter.

  6. If blood settles in the legs, soak them in warm water and make small cuts in the skin to let it out.

  7. Keep the hare at a distance from the fire at first.

  8. Serve with rich gravy and currant jelly sauce.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (anchovy, thyme, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, egg, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, thyme, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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