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Jugged Rabbits

A baked rabbit layered with pickled pork, onions, herbs, and a red currant jelly gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Jugged Rabbits

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and joint the rabbits.

  2. Layer some slices of pork in the bottom of a baking jar.

  3. Add layers of rabbit joints on top of the pork.

  4. Continue layering until all the meat is used.

  5. Add the sliced onion, herbs, and peppercorns.

  6. Cover the jar tightly and place it in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook for two hours.

  2. Remove the meat and arrange it on a hot dish.

  3. Strain the gravy into a saucepan, thicken with flour, and bring to a boil.

  4. Stir in the red currant jelly and season to taste.

  5. Pour the gravy over the rabbits and serve.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + red curranttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle cooking in a sealed jar.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury flavour that seasons the meat and the gravy as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the rabbit pieces instead of running off.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich, savoury gravy.
Gravy
Provides liquid and moisture that keeps the rabbit moist and forms the final sauce.

The step that matters

Covering the jar tightly. A tight seal traps steam so the meat cooks in its own moisture and gravy, keeping it tender rather than dry during the long oven cooking.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, onion, thyme, parsley, flour):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, onion, thyme, parsley, 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.

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