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Rabbit Barbecued

A rabbit roasted in hot fat and seasoned with pepper, mustard, lemon, and gravy, served with lemon slices, fried parsley, croutons, and red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rabbit Barbecued

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Open the rabbit down the back and remove the head.

  2. Wash the rabbit thoroughly.

  3. Soak the rabbit in cold water with a little salt for 1 hour.

  4. Dry the rabbit.

  5. Let the rabbit rest for 1 to 2 hours.

Cook

  1. Cut slits across the back and in the thick part of the legs.

  2. Dip the rabbit in hot fat.

  3. Season the rabbit with pepper.

  4. Cook the rabbit over a fire or on a grill, turning frequently and basting with fat for 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. Place the rabbit on a hot dish with seasoning and clarified butter.

  6. Cover the rabbit.

  7. Set the rabbit in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for a few minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix the mustard, lemon juice, and gravy, then heat the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture over the rabbit.

  3. Garnish the rabbit with lemon slices, fried parsley, and croutons.

  4. Serve the rabbit with red currant jelly on the side.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Young rabbit
Forms the main body of the dish, so its cooking time and tenderness define the result.
Hot fat
Conducts heat to the surface and helps brown and flavour the rabbit as it cooks.
French mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that contrasts with the rich meat and gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the mustard and gravy mixture.
Gravy made from the rabbit's head
Adds moisture and savoury depth to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Basting while grilling over the fire. Rabbit is very lean, so turning often and basting with fat keeps the surface from drying out and helps it brown evenly over 20 to 30 minutes.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, mustard, lemon, parsley):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, mustard, lemon, 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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