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Rabbit in Casserole

A rabbit casserole cooked with fat, water, stock, lemon, bay leaf, paprika, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and meat work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 315 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Rabbit in Casserole

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Dress the rabbit and separate it into pieces at the joints.

  2. Season the rabbit pieces with paprika and coarse sea salt.

Brown and bake

  1. Cook the rabbit in the fat until golden brown.

  2. Transfer the meat to a casserole with 1 cup of hot water and cover.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes.

  4. Add the stock or gravy, lemon juice, and bay leaf.

  5. Continue cooking in the oven for about 3 hours.

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. Rabbit + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together315 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Rabbit + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Meat + lemontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,817 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender with long, moist cooking.
Drippings or other fat
Browns the rabbit pieces and carries flavour into the dish.
Meat stock or thickened gravy
Supplies liquid and body to the sauce during the long braise.
Lemon juice
Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the rich, savoury sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the rabbit in the fat. Searing the pieces until golden builds browned, savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale pieces give a flatter, less developed sauce.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, meat):

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Grapefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, meat. 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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