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Turhan of Fillets of Rabbit

A turban-shaped rabbit dish with fillets, truffles, bacon, and farce, served with a ragout.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Turhan of Fillets of Rabbit

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.

Prepare the fillets

  1. Detach the fillets from the rabbits, including the inside fillets.

  2. Lard the large fillets with bacon and garnish the smaller ones with truffles.

  3. Make slanting incisions in the fillets.

  4. Insert round pieces of truffle into each incision.

Build the turban

  1. Prepare a farce from the rabbit legs.

  2. Cut a piece of bread for the center of the serving dish.

  3. Cover the bread with bacon slices.

  4. Shape the farce around the bread to form a turban shape.

  5. Arrange the large fillets in a slanting form around the turban, alternating with the small fillets and truffles.

  6. Press the fillets lightly to secure them.

  7. Cover with layers of bacon and white paper, tying it with string.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the farce is set.

  2. Remove the bread from inside the turban in quarters before taking off the bacon.

  3. Glaze the fillets.

  4. Serve with a ragout of cocks' combs, truffles, and mushrooms in the center.

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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Truffle + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit fillets
Provide the tender main meat that is larded, arranged and glazed around the turban.
Truffles
Add an earthy aroma and rich flavour to the fillets and the centre ragout.
Bacon
Lards the lean fillets and wraps the turban, adding fat and moisture during baking.
Rabbit leg farce
Forms a set, sliceable mass that holds the turban shape as it bakes.
Mushrooms
Contribute savoury, earthy flavour to the ragout served in the centre.

The step that matters

Bake until the farce is set. Rabbit is very lean, so overbaking dries the fillets, while underbaking leaves the farce loose and unable to hold the turban shape. Checking that the farce has firmed up helps balance both.

“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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