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Rabbits to Fry

A dish of rabbit joints fried in butter, seasoned with parsley and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Rabbits to Fry

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add rabbit joints and fry until golden brown.

  3. Sprinkle with dried parsley and salt to taste.

  4. Serve with additional parsley and butter as a sauce.

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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main protein; frying browns its surface and gives a savory crust.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness, and its milk solids help the surface brown.

The step that matters

Frying the rabbit until golden brown. Rabbit is lean, so it can dry out or toughen if fried too long. Medium heat lets the surface brown through Maillard reactions while the inside stays moist. Cook until the joints are golden, not hard and dark.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter. 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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