Why it works: Butter and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Roast Hare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the bones from the back and thighs of the hare using a sharp knife.
Prepare twice the usual amount of forcemeat and fill the body of the hare.
Line the body with slices of bacon, trimming the rind and edges.
Sew up the hare and truss it as usual.
Roast and serve
Baste the hare generously with butter while roasting.
Serve with a sauce made from melted currant jelly in brown gravy.
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.
-
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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, cooked whole and stuffed, so it carries the dish.
- Forcemeat (in the method)
- Fills the body, adding moisture and flavour as the meat cooks around it.
- Slices of bacon
- Lining the body adds fat that bastes the lean meat from inside.
- Butter
- Basting adds fat that promotes browning and a glossy, moist surface.
- Currant jelly
- Melted into the gravy, it adds sweetness and a fruity acidity that balances the rich meat.
The step that matters
Baste the hare generously with butter while roasting. Hare is very lean, so without regular fat it dries out and toughens. Frequent basting moistens the surface and helps it brown evenly.
“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.
More roasted hare recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.