Skip to main content
Main

To Stew Rabbits

A rabbit stew simmered with onions in a butter and flour sauce, seasoned with nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Stew Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbits

  1. Truss the rabbits.

  2. Lay the trussed rabbits in a pan of warm water for about fifteen minutes.

  3. Transfer the rabbits to a pot with plenty of water and a little salt, and stew them slowly for about an hour, or until they are quite tender.

Make the onion sauce

  1. Peel a dozen onions.

  2. Boil the peeled onions in a sauce-pan.

  3. When the onions are quite tender, take them out, drain, and slice them.

  4. Cut six ounces of butter into bits and roll them in about three tea-spoonfuls of flour.

  5. Melt the butter and flour mixture in a jill of milk.

  6. Shake the mixture over hot coals until it simmers.

  7. Add the sliced onions to the simmering mixture and give it one boil up.

Serve

  1. When the rabbits are done stewing, lay them on a large dish, having first cut off their heads, which should not be sent to table.

  2. Cover the rabbits with the onion-sauce.

  3. Add some grated nutmeg to the sauce if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

569Calories
13 gProtein
14 gFat
96 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12

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

By Eliza Leslie. 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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Tea + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + teatop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour 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 (in the method)
Form the main body of the stew, becoming tender through slow, moist cooking.
Onions (in the method)
Soften and sweeten, adding body and mild flavour to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce that coats the rabbit.
Milk (in the method)
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it creaminess.

The step that matters

Melt the butter and flour mixture in the milk, then stir and heat gently. Flour must be dispersed in the warm liquid and heated so starch swells and thickens the sauce. Adding it lumpy or heating too fast can leave clumps or scorch the milk, so the sauce turns out grainy or uneven.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Sagefits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tea, 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.

More rabbit stew recipes

in Milk 5Spanish 5Herb 4Bordeaux 3with Bacon 3with Bacon and Sherry 3 See all 81 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes