Name: Ditto, of Young Rabbits
Ingredients: 12 ounces young wild rabbit meat, diced; 8 ounces fat bacon, diced; 2 ounces butter; 3 tablespoons sweet herbs; 5 teaspoons seasoning salt; 1 bay leaf; 2 small onions, sliced; 1 small carrot, sliced

Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ditto, of Young Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

In a stewpan, combine rabbit meat, bacon, butter, sweet herbs, seasoning salt, bay leaf, onions, and carrot.
Place the stewpan on low heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf, onions, and carrot once cooked.

Pound the meat

Let the mixture cool, then pound it finely and pass it through a fine sieve.
Pound 6 ounces of panada and mix it with the yolks of 3 eggs in a mortar.
Add the remaining meat and pound for 15 minutes, adding a spoonful of veloute if necessary.

Serve

Transfer to a tureen and cover with buttered paper.

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.

Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rabbit + meattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together315 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,292 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,448 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

Rabbit meat: Provides the main body and texture of the stew, becoming fine and smooth when pounded.
Bacon: Adds fat and savoury flavour that carries through the whole mixture.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the mixture feel soft and smooth.
Egg yolks (in the method): Bind the pounded mixture and enrich it as it sets gently.

The step that matters

Pounding in the egg yolks and panada. The yolks and panada must be worked in thoroughly so the mixture turns smooth and holds together. If it stiffens, a spoonful of veloute loosens it. Egg proteins set with gentle heat, so overworking or overheating can make the texture grainy rather than tender.

Swap the carrot

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

Potatofits better
Mustardfits better
Shallotfits better
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, meat, butter, onion. 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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Ditto, of Young Rabbits