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Stewed Rabbits in Milk

A stew of young rabbits simmered gently in milk with mace, flour, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,067 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Stewed Rabbits in Milk

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the flour very smoothly with 4 tablespoonfuls of the milk, and when this is well mixed, add the remainder.

Stew the rabbit

  1. Cut up the rabbits into joints, put them into a stewpan, with the milk and other ingredients, and simmer them very gently until quite tender.

  2. Stir the contents from time to time, to keep the milk smooth and prevent it from burning.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

604Calories
21 gProtein
9 gFat
107 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 4 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Rabbitnot in our table0
Macenot 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. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  4. Milk + rabbittop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Rabbit + macetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together364 recipes

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the stew and, thickened, gives a smooth, creamy sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.

The step that matters

Stir the milk while it simmers. Milk scorches easily on the base of a pan and can curdle or stick when heated gently for a long time. Regular stirring keeps the heat even and the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rabbit, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rabbit, flour. 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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