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Matelote of Rabbits

A stew of rabbit pieces simmered with béchamel sauce, cocks' combs, pickled cucumbers, ham, tongue, eggs, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mushroom work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 667 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Matelote of Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Blanch and wash the rabbit pieces.

  2. Place them in a saucepan with ½ cup of water, cover, and cook until nearly done and the liquid is almost reduced.

  3. Ensure the liquid remains clear and colorless.

  4. Add ½ pint of béchamel sauce, cocks' combs, pickled cucumbers, ham, tongue, egg squares, and stewed mushrooms.

  5. Stir together and cook for 10 minutes.

  6. Serve the matelote immediately.

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. Cucumber + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Rabbit + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 as it cooks gently in the covered pan.
Béchamel sauce
Forms a creamy, smooth sauce that binds the garnishes together.
Eggs
Add richness and body to the sauce as cooked pieces mix through it.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and a firmer texture to the dish.
Tongue
Adds rich, meaty flavor and a tender texture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Keeping the liquid clear and colorless. The liquid should be reduced gently without browning. Overcooking or high heat can darken the liquid and dull the delicate, pale appearance the dish depends on.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, sauce, ham, egg, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, sauce, ham, egg, mushroom. 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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