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Rabbit a LA Maryland

A baked rabbit dish with breadcrumb coating, served with cream sauce and bacon garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rabbit a LA Maryland

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Clean and cut up the rabbits.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.

  3. Dip in beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

  4. Arrange in a well-greased baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 35 minutes, basting after the first 5 minutes with melted butter mixed with boiling water or stock.

  2. Serve with a cream sauce and garnish with crispy bacon.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the meat that is cooked through in the oven.
Flour
Dries the surface so the egg and breadcrumbs adhere to it.
Egg
Acts as a binder that holds the breadcrumb coating to the meat.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the coating brown during baking.

The step that matters

Basting after the first 5 minutes. Adding butter mixed with boiling water or stock moistens the coating and helps it brown evenly. Basting too early can wash off the breadcrumb coating, while skipping it can leave the rabbit dry.

“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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