Why it works: Pork and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Roast Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the hare in several waters for 1.5 hours to remove blood.
Cut the neck-string and pour warm water over the incision.
Dry the hare thoroughly.
Roast
Saturate a piece of paper with liquid fat and cover the head and neck, tying on pure fat underneath.
Lay slices of cold boiled pork or bacon over the back and cover with oiled paper for the first 45 minutes.
Remove the paper and bacon when nearly done to finish roasting.
Baste the hare continually to keep it moist.
Roast horizontally on a spit for 1 to 2 hours, depending on size.
Serve
After roasting, use leftover meat in jelly made from the bones.
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.
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hare
- Is the main meat, whose lean flesh gains tenderness and juiciness from fat and basting.
- Pure fat
- Adds moisture and richness to the lean meat as it roasts.
- Liquid fat
- Soaks the paper so it protects the head and neck while keeping them moist.
- Cold boiled pork or bacon
- Lays over the back, basting the lean meat with its fat and adding savoury flavour.
The step that matters
Covering the back with paper for the first 45 minutes. Lean game dries out quickly under direct heat, so the bacon and paper shield the back while the meat cooks through; removing them late lets it brown.
“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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