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To Roast Rabbits

Roasted rabbits stuffed with a breadcrumb and herb mixture, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Prepare a stuffing by mixing breadcrumbs, parsley, marjoram, thyme, lemon peel, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  3. In a bowl, combine the stuffing with butter, cream, and eggs until well mixed.

Stuff and roast

  1. Stuff the rabbits with the mixture and sew them up.

  2. Dredge the rabbits with butter and roast them for about 1 hour.

  3. Chop the livers and place them around the dish.

Serve

  1. Serve with parsley and melted butter for 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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 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, cooked whole around the stuffing.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the butter, cream and eggs to give the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when sliced and served.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the outside of the rabbits brown in the oven.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the stuffing, keeping it tender as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stuff and sew the rabbits. Stuffing packed too tightly can split the skin or keep the centre from cooking evenly, so the stuffing should be loosely filled and the rabbits sewn firmly closed before roasting.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, parsley, marjoram, thyme, lemon, pepper, 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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