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Rabbit Pie

A savory pie made with rabbit, pickled pork, livers, brains, bacon, herbs, artichoke bottoms, nutmeg, port, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Rabbit Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut up the rabbits and the pickled pork into small bits.

  2. Season the pork with salt and pepper and place it in a dish.

  3. Parboil the livers and brains, then beat them with the bacon or ham in a mortar.

  4. Add mace, salt, pepper, and chopped sweet herbs to the mixture.

  5. Form small balls from the mixture and distribute them in the dish with the diced artichoke bottoms.

  6. Grate nutmeg over the filling, then add port and water.

Bake

  1. Cover with a thick pie crust and bake for 1 hour at 400°F (200°C).

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. Artichoke + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the main lean meat that forms the bulk of the filling.
Fat pork
Adds fat and moisture so the meat stays juicy during baking.
Livers and brains
Give the filling a soft, rich texture and a deeper flavour once beaten smooth.
Bacon or ham
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the beaten mixture, helping it stay moist.
Port
Adds sweetness and wine flavour, and moisture to the filling as it cooks.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling, holding in moisture and steam while it bakes.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, pepper, liver, ham, artichoke, nutmeg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, pepper, liver, ham, artichoke, 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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