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Hare Soup

A hearty soup made with hare, ham, stock, onions, carrot, herbs, port, currant jelly, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Hare Soup

Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hare Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hare

  1. Cut the hare into pieces.

  2. Fry the hare and ham in the butter.

  3. Pour the stock over the meat.

  4. Add the chopped onions, carrot, and herbs.

  5. Simmer slowly for 2 hours, then strain the mixture.

Finish the soup

  1. Cut some dice from the best part of the back of the hare.

  2. Pound the remainder of the hare with the ham and cracker crumbs.

  3. Cook all in the strained stock for 10 minutes.

  4. Add the currant jelly and port, then serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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 of the soup.
Butter
Fat that browns the hare and ham, adding savoury flavour and richness.
Cracker crumbs
Pounded into the meat to thicken the soup and give it body.
Port
Adds sweetness and wine aroma to the finished soup.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity, slightly tart note to balance the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for 2 hours, then strain. A slow, gentle simmer draws flavour from the hare and bones without boiling the meat tough or cloudy, and straining removes solids so the stock stays clear.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, onion, carrot):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, onion, carrot. 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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