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Jugged Hare

A hare cooked with ham, onions, herbs, mace, stock, and port wine, then strained and blanched.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Jugged Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Make the port stock

  1. Place the hare bones in a small soup pot.

  2. Add lean ham, onions, thyme, parsley, mace, stock, and port wine.

  3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Prepare the hare

  1. Blanch the hare in cold water until boiling, then wash in several waters.

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. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + macetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Parsley + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Hare
The main meat, which the long simmer softens and flavours.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity depth to the braising liquid.
Onions
Break down during simmering to add sweetness and body to the liquid.
Stock
Provides the liquid that carries flavour and keeps the meat moist.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the liquid.
Mace
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the liquid.

The step that matters

Blanching the hare in cold water. Bringing the hare to a boil in cold water releases scum and blood proteins from the meat. Washing it afterwards removes what remains, so the stock stays clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, thyme, parsley, port wine):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, thyme, parsley, port 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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