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Curried Rabbit and Dry Boiled Rice

A rabbit stew with curry and dry boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Curried Rabbit and Dry Boiled Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rabbit thoroughly and cut it into small joints, splitting the head in two parts.

  2. Chop the onions and fry them in the dripping until brown.

Make the curry

  1. Mix half the flour and the curry powder in a pint of stock (or water) and add to the onions, frying until thick.

  2. Dip the rabbit joints into the remaining flour and add them to the gravy.

  3. Cook slowly on low heat, uncovered, for one hour, stirring occasionally. Do not let it boil.

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 + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Rabbit + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Flour + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender during slow simmering.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and gives the rabbit joints a coating that helps the sauce cling.
Onions
Add sweetness and body to the gravy as they brown in the fat.
Curry powder
Provides the spiced aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
Dripping
Carries the flavour of the onions and browns them as the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Cook slowly without boiling. Gentle, uncovered simmering over low heat tenderises the rabbit while letting the gravy thicken. A rolling boil toughens the meat and can break the sauce, so the heat must stay low.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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