Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Rabbit, Boiled, and Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rabbits
Skin the rabbits.
Skewer the rabbits for boiling.
Soak the rabbits in warm water to extract the blood until they are very white.
Boil the rabbits in boiling water with a little salt for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Make the onion sauce
Peel the onions. Cut off the tops and tails of the onions. Chop the onions into six pieces each.
Boil the onions in boiling water with a little salt until nearly done.
Drain the onions. Squeeze the onions in a clean towel to remove excess water. Chop the onions finely.
Melt the butter in a stewpan. Fry the chopped onions in the butter until the water drains away.
Add the flour to the onions. Mix the onions and flour well.
Moisten the mixture with cream or milk. Let the sauce boil down on high heat.
Season the sauce with salt and pepper to thicken.
Serve
Drain the rabbits.
Cover the rabbits with the onion sauce.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rabbit + creamtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together409 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour 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 main meat, which becomes tender through long boiling.
- White onions
- Form the body of the sauce, adding sweetness and soft texture as they cook down.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the flavor as the onions fry.
- Flour
- Binds with the onion and fat to thicken the sauce.
- Cream or milk
- Moistens the onion mixture and makes the sauce smooth and creamy.
The step that matters
Squeezing the boiled onions dry. Excess water dilutes the sauce and makes the flour clump instead of thickening it. Frying until the water drains away and reducing the sauce on high heat concentrates it into a thick, cohesive sauce.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, flour, cream, pepper):
- Spinachfits better
- Potatofits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, cream, pepper. 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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