Name: To Fricajfee Rabbits Brown
Ingredients: 2 rabbits, cut for eating; 4 tablespoons butter; 1 pint water; 1 teaspoon lemon pickle; 1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup; 1 anchovy; 1 slice lemon; Cayenne pepper, to taste; Coarse sea salt, to taste

Why it works: Ketchup and anchovy match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Fricajfee Rabbits Brown

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the rabbits in butter until light brown.
Place them in a toasting pan with water, lemon pickle, mushroom ketchup, anchovy, lemon, cayenne pepper, and salt.
Simmer over low heat until cooked through.
Thicken the gravy, strain it, and pour over the rabbits before serving.

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.

Ketchup + anchovytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together479 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 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

Rabbits: Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender as they simmer through.
Butter: Browns the rabbit surface during frying and adds richness to the dish.
Mushroom ketchup: Adds deep savoury flavour to the gravy.
Anchovy: Adds savoury depth to the gravy without a clearly fishy taste.

The step that matters

Simmer over low heat until cooked through. High heat can toughen rabbit meat and make the gravy reduce too fast or stick. Gentle simmering keeps the meat tender and moist while it cooks through.

“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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To Fricajfee Rabbits Brown