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Barbecued Rabbit

A rabbit roasted on a grill with butter, pepper, salt, and a vinegar‑mustard glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Barbecued Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the rabbit in salt and water for 30 minutes.

  2. Scald the rabbit with boiling water and wipe it dry.

  3. Grease the rabbit with butter and sprinkle with pepper and a little salt.

Grill and baste

  1. Place the rabbit on a grill, turning often to ensure even cooking without drying out.

  2. Once browned, place the rabbit on a hot dish and butter both sides generously, adding more salt and pepper.

  3. In a bowl, mix the vinegar, mustard, and currant jelly or brown sugar.

  4. Pour the mixture over the rabbit, rubbing it in.

Serve

  1. Pour over the gravy and serve hot.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Rabbit + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

  4. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Is the main protein; turning it often on the grill keeps it cooking evenly without drying out.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown on the grill.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that cuts the richness of the butter and balances the sweetness.
Currant jelly or brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the glaze brown and caramelize on the hot rabbit.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that complements the vinegar and sweetener.

The step that matters

Turning the rabbit on the grill. Rabbit is very lean, so over direct heat it dries out and toughens quickly. Turning it often spreads the heat evenly and lets butter and fat keep the surface moist while it browns.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, pepper, vinegar, mustard):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, pepper, vinegar, mustard. 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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