Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Fricassee of Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rabbit
Cut the rabbits into neat joints.
Blanch each joint for 10 minutes in a pot of boiling water.
Transfer each joint to a bowl of cold water.
Trim each piece neatly.
Braise
Place the trimmed pieces in a stewpan with butter at the bottom.
Add rabbit trimmings, parsley, and green onions to the blanching water.
Let the mixture stew for 1 hour.
Sprinkle flour over the rabbits and shake until the butter melts.
Moisten the rabbits with the broth.
Add mushrooms and boil for about 45 minutes, or until the rabbit is tender.
Skim off the butter.
Transfer the rabbit to another stewpan.
Reduce the sauce.
Pass the sauce through a fine sieve over the rabbit.
Reserve the mushrooms.
Keep the fricassee warm by placing one stewpan in another with hot water.
Finish the sauce
Thicken the sauce with egg yolks and cream.
Season with salt.
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.
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,132 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
- Rabbit
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle stewing.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavor as the rabbit begins to cook.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a light, cohesive sauce.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy flavor and a savory note to the sauce.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the sauce to a smooth, velvety texture.
- Heavy cream
- Adds body and richness, softening the sauce's final texture.
The step that matters
Thickening the sauce with egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks begin to set around 65°C (150°F). If the sauce boils after adding them, they scramble and turn grainy, so it should be heated gently and not allowed to boil.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, flour, mushroom, egg, cream, parsley):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, mushroom, egg, cream, parsley. 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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