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To Fricafee Rabbits White

A rabbit stew simmered in a white sauce of veal gravy, lemon pickle, anchovy, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Fricafee Rabbits White

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fricassee

  1. In a stuffing pan, combine the rabbit pieces with veal gravy, lemon pickle, anchovy, lemon slice, beaten mace, Cayenne pepper, and salt.

  2. Stew over low heat until the rabbits are cooked through.

  3. Thicken the gravy with a mixture of flour and butter.

  4. Strain the gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix in the egg yolks and thick cream, adding grated nutmeg. Do not let the mixture boil.

  2. Serve it over the rabbits.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Veal + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing in the gravy.
Veal gravy
Forms the savoury liquid base that the sauce is built on.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the rabbit pieces.
Butter
Combines with flour to form a roux that adds body and richness to the sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce and give it a silky texture as they set gently with the cream.
Thick cream
Adds richness and smoothness, softening the sauce's flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Do not let the mixture boil. Once egg yolks are added, high heat can curdle them, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smooth and velvety. Keep it warm and gently thickened.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, veal, lemon, anchovy, pepper, flour, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, lemon, anchovy, pepper, flour, 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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