Skip to main content
Main

Forcemeat for Hare

A forcemeat made from boiled hare liver, butter, egg, bacon, port wine, and optional onion or shallot, used for stuffing hare.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and port wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,499 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely mince the boiled liver and set aside.

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced liver, butter, and egg.

Season and use

  1. If desired, add rasped bacon and port wine for flavor.

  2. Optionally, mix in minced onion or shallot.

  3. Use this forcemeat to stuff the hare or as needed.

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. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Liver + port winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together108 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver of hare
Forms the main body of the forcemeat and gives it its savory flavor.
Egg
Binds the minced mixture so it holds together when stuffed and cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the forcemeat stay tender.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that enriches the flavor and moisture of the mixture.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, egg, port wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, egg, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes