Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Curried Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Empty, skin, and wash the rabbit thoroughly, then cut it into joints.
Make the curry
In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the sliced onions; cook until they are brown but not blackened.
Pour in the boiling stock.
Mix the curry powder and flour with a little water, then add to the stock along with the mushroom powder.
Simmer gently for just over 30 minutes.
Squeeze in the lemon juice.
Serve
Serve the rabbit in the center of a dish, surrounded by boiled rice.
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.
-
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,515 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
-
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during the gentle simmer.
- Onions
- Browning them in butter adds sweetness and a deeper savory base to the sauce.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spiced aroma and color that define the dish.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock so the curry sauce has body and clings to the meat.
- Butter
- Carries the onions' browning and adds richness and fat to the sauce.
- Rice
- Absorbs the sauce and gives a neutral starch base to the curry.
The step that matters
Browning the onions. Onions cooked until brown but not blackened develop sweet, savory flavors through browning; burnt onions turn bitter and can spoil the whole curry.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, onion, flour, mushroom, rice):
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Mangofits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion, flour, mushroom, rice. 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.
More rabbit curry recipes
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Rice Fritters84 recipes
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Steamed Rice48 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.