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Stewed Rabbit

A rabbit stew cooked with water, Port wine, mace, flour, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash the rabbit pieces and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Place the rabbit in a stewpan and add ½ cup of water.

  3. When the water has nearly evaporated, add ½ cup of Port wine, mace, and a mixture of flour and butter.

  4. Let it stew gently until the rabbit is tender, then 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Port wine + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together695 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour into the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Stewing gently until tender. High heat makes the meat's proteins tighten and toughen, and the liquid can reduce or scorch. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue break down slowly, so the rabbit becomes tender while the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, port wine, flour, butter, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, port wine, flour, butter, 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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