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Rabbit Roast with Espagnole Sauce

A roasted rabbit stuffed with veal forcemeat, covered in bacon, served with Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and sauce work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rabbit Roast with Espagnole Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Stuff the rabbit with the veal forcemeat and sew up the opening.

  2. Truss the rabbit according to the directions provided on Trussing (p. 108).

  3. Cover the back with slices of bacon and baste well with hot dripping.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 50 to 60 minutes, depending on size.

  2. Baste frequently to prevent the flesh from drying out.

  3. A few minutes before serving, remove the bacon to allow the back to brown.

  4. Remove the skewers and serve on a hot dish with some sauce poured around.

  5. Garnish with diced bacon or crispy small rolls of bacon.

  6. Serve the remaining sauce in a sauce-boat.

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 + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Rabbit + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together441 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

  3. Veal + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the lean meat that is roasted and carved.
Bacon slices
Covers the back to baste the meat with fat and protect it while the rabbit roasts.
Veal forcemeat
Stuffing that adds moisture and richness to the lean rabbit meat as it cooks.
Espagnole sauce
Brown sauce served with the roast, adding savoury depth and moisture to each serving.
Hot dripping
Fat used for basting, carrying heat to the surface and helping the meat brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Basting and removing the bacon at the end. Frequent basting keeps the lean rabbit flesh from drying out. Removing the bacon a few minutes before serving lets the back brown directly in the oven heat, since fat and dry surface heat drive browning.

“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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