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Hare, Roasted

A roasted hare with bacon, liver sauce, and port.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Hare, Roasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the hare

  1. Choose a young hare, which should hang for about 8 days before cooking.

  2. Skin the hare.

  3. Draw the hare.

  4. Truss the hare as per standard poultry trussing methods.

  5. If using forcemeat, press it lightly inside the hare.

  6. Sew the body closed.

  7. Brush the hare with warm butter.

  8. Cover the back with bacon slices.

  9. Tie the hare down with string.

Roast

  1. Roast the hare in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  2. Baste the hare frequently with milk.

  3. When the hare is nearly cooked, remove the bacon.

  4. Allow the back to brown.

  5. Dredge lightly with flour.

  6. Baste with butter.

Make the liver sauce

  1. Remove the gall‑bladder from the liver.

  2. Place the liver in cold water.

  3. Bring the liver to a boil.

  4. Cook the liver for 5 minutes.

  5. Drain the liver.

  6. Chop the liver finely.

  7. Melt the butter in a small pan.

  8. Add the liver, onion, parsley, and thyme to the pan.

  9. Fry the mixture for 10 minutes.

  10. Drain the mixture.

  11. Return the butter to the pan.

  12. Pound the liver mixture until smooth.

  13. Sieve the liver mixture.

  14. Reheat the butter.

  15. Stir in the flour.

  16. Cook until a nut‑brown roux forms.

  17. Add the stock (or substitute with basting milk).

  18. Stir until boiling.

  19. Add the liver mixture.

  20. Season the sauce.

  21. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  22. Just before serving, stir in the port.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 so its lean flesh stays moist under bacon and basting.
Bacon
Covers the back to add fat and moisture while the lean meat roasts.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as a roux and helps the back brown when dredged.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown during roasting and in the roux.
Port
Adds depth and a little sweetness to the finished sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens with the roux.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux. Cooking flour in butter until nut-brown removes raw starch taste and gives the sauce colour and flavour. Stopping early leaves a pasty taste, while stirring in stock too quickly can make lumps.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, shallot, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, shallot, parsley, thyme, pepper. 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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