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Fried Rabbit

Fried rabbit pieces coated in crackers, served with a spiced gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fried Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Ensure the rabbit is tender and clean it as for baking.

  2. Dip each piece of rabbit into the beaten eggs, then coat with rolled crackers.

Fry the rabbit

  1. Heat the lard or beef dripping in a frying pan until it covers the bottom about ¼ inch deep.

  2. Add the rabbit pieces, season with pepper and salt, and fry until brown on both sides.

  3. Remove the cooked rabbit and keep it warm.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In the same pan, add the minced onion and boiling water.

  2. Gradually stir in the blended browned flour and let it boil for one minute.

  3. Season the gravy with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg.

  4. Pour the gravy over the rabbit and serve.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rabbit + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the cracker coating so it adheres to the rabbit pieces.
Rolled crackers
Form a crisp, browned crust around the rabbit during frying.
Blended browned flour
Thickens the boiling liquid into a smooth gravy.
Lard or beef dripping
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the browned flour. Adding flour gradually to boiling liquid while stirring prevents lumps, because flour dispersed slowly hydrates evenly and its starch thickens the gravy smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, egg, beef, onion, flour, pepper, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, egg, beef, onion, flour, pepper, nutmeg. 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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