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To Jiorendine Rabbits

A boiled rabbit stuffed with bacon, bread crumbs, herbs, and spices, served with a creamy white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Jiorendine Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbits

  1. Skin the rabbits, leaving the ears on, then wash and dry them.

  2. Carefully remove the bones, keeping the head whole, and lay the rabbits flat.

  3. Make a forcemeat by mixing bacon, bread crumbs, lemon, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt with an egg.

  4. Spread the forcemeat over the rabbits, roll them up to the head, and skewer them straight.

  5. Tie the ears back and boil the rabbits for 30 minutes.

  6. Remove the jaw-bones and place them in the eyes for decoration.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Prepare a white sauce by combining veal gravy, anchovy, lemon juice, and a thickened mixture of butter and flour.

  2. Stir the sauce while it thickens, then mix in beaten egg yolk, cream, nutmeg, and salt.

  3. Simmer the sauce gently, then pour it over the rabbits 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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, carrying the stuffing and cooking to tender meat.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury richness to the forcemeat, keeping it moist as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and bind the forcemeat so it holds together when rolled.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the sauce and gives it a smooth, glossy body.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it body and a silky texture.
Cream
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, softening its flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce while it thickens. Flour thickens only when stirred evenly as it heats, otherwise lumps form. Egg yolk can curdle if the sauce boils after it is added, so keep the sauce gently simmering.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, lemon, thyme, parsley, egg, butter, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, lemon, thyme, parsley, egg, butter, flour. 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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