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Barbecued Rabbit

A rabbit cooked in a butter and vinegar sauce, finished by simmering in its own salted water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Barbecued Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Brown the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add vinegar, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and a little salted water from boiling the rabbit.

  3. Boil the rabbit until tender.

  4. Place the rabbit in the saucepan, simmer gently, and baste until nicely browned.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + rabbittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sauce + rabbittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Butter
Browns in the pan to add a rich, nutty flavor to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the butter.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the basting sauce.

The step that matters

Place the rabbit in the saucepan, simmer gently, and baste until nicely browned.. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the meat tender while the sauce reduces. Frequent basting coats the surface so the sugars and proteins brown evenly.

“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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