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Thick Hare Soup

A hearty soup made with hare, beef marrow, vegetables, herbs, and blood thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Thick Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Prepare the hare by paunching it and saving the blood.

  2. Cut the hare into joints, washing only as necessary.

Make the stock

  1. In a stock pot, combine the hare, water, and marrow removed from the beef.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add all vegetables, herbs, spices, and sugar.

  4. Boil for 1 to 1.5 hours, depending on the hare's age.

  5. Remove the hare flesh, cut into small pieces, and set aside.

  6. Return the bones to the pot and boil for an additional 14 hours.

  7. Strain the mixture and return the hare flesh to the pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Strain the saved blood through a fine sieve.

  2. Mix the blood with 2 tablespoons of flour and enough water to moisten.

  3. Add the blood mixture to the pot, stir until boiling.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. Boil for a few minutes before serving.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 and rich, gamey flavour to the broth.
Shin of beef
Its marrow and connective tissue add body and richness to the stock.
Blood (in the method)
Thickens the soup and gives it a dark colour and deeper flavour.
Flour (in the method)
Helps thicken the blood mixture so it blends smoothly into the soup.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as the stock simmers.

The step that matters

Adding the blood mixture. Blood thickens and can curdle or scorch if it boils too hard or too long. Stir it in gradually and heat only until it is just boiling, so it stays smooth and does not separate.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, turnip, celery, mustard, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, turnip, celery, mustard, clove. 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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