Name: Hare or Rabbit Soup
Ingredients: 2 hares, cut up; ½ cup bacon, diced; 2 onions, finely chopped; 1 bundle of thyme; 1 bundle of parsley; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon pounded cloves; ¼ teaspoon mace; water, as needed; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 tablespoons brown flour or ⅓ cup red wine

Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

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.

Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Hares: Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle stewing.
Bacon: Adds fat and savory flavor that carries into the broth.
Onions: Build sweetness and savory depth as they soften in the stew.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel when stirred into the thickened soup.
Brown flour: Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, deeper flavor and color.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with butter and brown flour or red wine. Flour must be cooked into the hot liquid and boiled briefly so its starch swells fully and no raw, pasty taste remains. Adding it to a boiling liquid without stirring can cause lumps.

Swap the mace

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

Marjoramfits better
Winter savoryfits better
Allspicefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, thyme, parsley, pepper, clove, butter, flour. 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.

Hare or Rabbit Soup