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Stewed Rabbit

A rabbit stew with broth, herbs, onions, cloves, lemon peel, mushroom ketchup, bacon, sherry, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 18 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 ↓

Stewed Rabbit

5 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the rabbit

  1. Cut the rabbit into small joints; put them into a stewpan, add sliced onions, cloves, and minced lemon peel.

  2. Pour in sufficient water to cover the meat, and when the rabbit is nearly done, drop in a few forcemeat balls with finely chopped liver.

  3. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter, add the mushroom ketchup, give one boil, and serve.

Lard, simmer and finish

  1. Wash the rabbit, cut it into quarters, lard them with strips of bacon, and fry them.

  2. Put them into a stewpan with the broth, herbs, pepper, and salt; simmer gently until the rabbit is tender.

  3. Strain the gravy, thicken it with butter and flour, add the sherry, give one boil, pour it over the rabbit, serve, and garnish with slices of cut lemon.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

119Calories
5 gProtein
1 gFat
21 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Rabbitnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Onions
Sliced onions soften and sweeten as they cook into the stew.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the herbs and flavour into the meat.
Flour (in the method)
Starch thickens the gravy so it coats the rabbit rather than running off.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and helps bind the flour into a smooth gravy.
Sherry
Adds a sharp, aromatic note that brightens the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked into the butter and gravy until it is smooth; if it is added raw or in lumps, it tastes pasty and the gravy stays grainy. Starch swells and thickens only once it is heated in liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, clove, lemon, mushroom, ketchup, sherry, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, clove, lemon, mushroom, ketchup, sherry, pepper. 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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