Skip to main content
Main

Rabbit, Fricandeau of

A braised rabbit dish with larding, tomato sauce, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tea and tomato share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 95 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Rabbit, Fricandeau of

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Remove the hind-quarters and loins from the rabbit.

  2. Lard the flesh evenly.

  3. Place the larded rabbit in a deep baking dish.

  4. Pour enough stock over the rabbit to cover it.

  5. Cover the dish with buttered paper.

Bake and reduce the gravy

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until tender, basting frequently.

  2. Lift the rabbit out of the dish.

  3. Keep the rabbit warm.

  4. Boil the remaining gravy until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Spread the tomato sauce on a hot dish.

  2. Place the rabbit on top of the sauce.

  3. Crisp the larding with a red-hot shovel.

  4. Pour the gravy over everything.

  5. Serve very hot.

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. Tea + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together95 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Rabbit + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Rabbit
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender through slow baking in stock.
Lard
Adds fat to the lean rabbit flesh, keeping it moist and giving a richer texture.
Stock
Provides moisture and flavour, keeping the rabbit tender while it bakes and forming the gravy.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savoury flavour, forming a base beneath the rabbit.

The step that matters

Crisp the larding with a red-hot shovel. Fat under intense direct heat browns and crisps the surface quickly. Too little heat leaves the larding soft and pale, and too much can scorch it before the rabbit is served.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, tea, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, tea, sauce. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes