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To Roast Rabbits

Roasted rabbits stuffed with bread crumbs, herbs, butter, cream, and eggs, served with parsley and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Skewer the heads of the rabbits with their mouths on their backs.

  2. Stick the forelegs into their ribs and skewer the hind legs doubled.

Make and stuff

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, parsley, marjoram, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add the butter, cream, and eggs to the mixture and combine to form a light stuffing.

  3. Stuff the rabbits with the mixture and sew them up.

Roast and serve

  1. Dredge and baste the rabbits well with lard.

  2. Roast the rabbits in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1 hour.

  3. Serve with parsley and butter sauce, and chop the livers to place around the edge of the dish.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Rabbits
Provide the main meat that is roasted whole and stuffed.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter, cream and eggs to form a light, moist stuffing.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the stuffing and moisture to the meat.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the stuffing.
Lard
Coats the outside of the rabbits to promote browning and keep the surface moist.

The step that matters

Stuffing the rabbits and sewing them up. The stuffing must be light and not packed tight, because it expands slightly as it cooks. Overfilling can split the skin or leave the centre undercooked, so the cavity should be filled loosely and sewn closed firmly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, bread, parsley, marjoram, thyme, pepper, butter):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, bread, parsley, marjoram, thyme, pepper, butter. 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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