Name: White Fricassee of Rabbit
Ingredients: 2 rabbits, cleaned and cut into joints; 1 pint of milk; 2 tablespoons of flour; 2 tablespoons of butter; 1/4 teaspoon of mace; 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg; 2 tablespoons of lemon juice; 1/2 teaspoon of salt; 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

White Fricassee of Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

Wash the rabbits in cold water until the flesh is white.
Boil the rabbits in a saucepan of water, then remove and cut into joints.

Make the sauce

In a separate pot, thicken the milk with flour and butter.
Add mace, nutmeg, lemon juice, salt, and white pepper to the milk mixture.

Simmer and serve

Combine the sauce with the rabbit joints in a stewpan, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

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.

Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,695 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits: Provide the lean meat that becomes tender during the covered simmer.
Milk: Forms the base of the sauce, carrying the flavours and giving a creamy body.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce by swelling as it heats.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the sauce and helps the flour thicken it smoothly.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the milk with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked into the butter and milk while stirring, or it forms lumps. Heating it gently lets the starch swell evenly into a smooth, thick sauce.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, milk, flour, butter, mace, nutmeg, lemon):

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits better
Marjoramfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, milk, flour, butter, mace, nutmeg, lemon. 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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White Fricassee of Rabbit