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Rabbit Ragout

A stew of rabbits cooked with tomatoes, onions, salt pork, vinegar, bay leaf, cloves, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rabbit Ragout

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Parboil the rabbits until partially cooked.

  2. In a large pot, combine the parboiled rabbits, tomatoes, water, onions, salt pork, vinegar, bay leaf, cloves, and allspice.

  3. Simmer slowly until the rabbits are fully cooked.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle cooking.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, forming the liquid of the ragout.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich meat and sauce.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory depth that enriches the sauce.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften into the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until fully cooked. Gentle, slow simmering breaks down the connective tissue in the rabbit and keeps the meat moist and tender. A hard boil tightens the muscle fibres and toughens the meat, so keep the liquid at a quiet simmer.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, pork, vinegar, clove, allspice):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, pork, vinegar, clove, allspice. 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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