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Sour Rabbit

A rabbit marinated in vinegar and spices, then fried and served with brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,901 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Sour Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Place the rabbit pieces in a crock.

  2. Add the sliced onions and whole cloves.

  3. Season well with coarse sea salt.

  4. Cover the mixture with vinegar and let it stand for 36 hours.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the marinated rabbit in grease until cooked.

  2. Serve with brown gravy.

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. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rabbit + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
The main meat, which the marinade softens and flavors before frying.
Vinegar
Acidity that gives the dish its sour flavor and helps soften the meat during marinating.
Onions
Adds aromatic flavor and some sweetness to the marinade.
Whole cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice to the marinade.
Grease
Conducts heat for frying, helping the rabbit brown and develop a crisp surface.

The step that matters

Marinating for 36 hours. The vinegar acid slowly softens the meat and carries its sour flavor into it. Stopping early leaves the rabbit tough and under-flavored, while going much longer can make the surface mushy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, vinegar. 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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