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Rabbit Pie

A savory pie with rabbit, vegetables, and gravy baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rabbit Pie

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.

Brine the rabbit

  1. Prepare a brine with water, vinegar, salt, pickling spices, carrot, onion, and celery.

  2. Add the rabbit to the brine and soak for 24 hours.

  3. Remove the rabbit from the brine.

  4. Wipe the rabbit dry.

Fry and stew

  1. Roll the rabbit in flour.

  2. Fry the rabbit for 10 minutes over a brisk flame, turning frequently.

  3. Place the rabbit pieces in a pot.

  4. Cover with water.

  5. Add ketchup, pepper, and 1 cup of the brine.

  6. Simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  7. Remove the rabbit from the pot.

  8. Strain the gravy over the rabbit.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and milk into a dough.

  2. Roll out the dough to ½ inch thick.

  3. Line a 4‑quart pan with the dough.

  4. Add the stewed rabbit with plenty of gravy.

  5. Cover with another layer of crust, making a hole in the center for steam to escape.

  6. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour, ensuring the bottom crust is cooked.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through soaking and long simmering.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and forms the structure of the rolled pie crust.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the crust rise and turn light.
Lard
Adds fat that makes the pie crust tender and flaky.
Skim milk
Moistens the dough so it binds and rolls out smoothly.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that flavour the simmered gravy.

The step that matters

Bake until the bottom crust is cooked. A wet filling sits on the bottom crust, which can stay pale and doughy if the bake is too short. Baking long enough sets the dough and lets moisture cook off.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, carrot, celery, rabbit, flour, ketchup, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, carrot, celery, rabbit, flour, ketchup, 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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