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Rabbit, Marinaded and Baked

A rabbit marinated in port or claret, vinegar, onion, peppercorns, bay leaf, cloves, bacon, veal forcemeat, dripping, then baked and finished with milk and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,150 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rabbit, Marinaded and Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Marinate

  1. Marinate the rabbit in port or claret, vinegar, onion, peppercorns, bay leaf, and cloves for 3-4 hours, turning and basting it 3-4 times.

  2. Tie slices of bacon across the rabbit's back.

  3. Fill the rabbit with veal forcemeat if desired.

Bake

  1. Place the rabbit in a deep dish.

  2. Pour the marinade over the rabbit.

  3. Add large pieces of dripping on top and bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) until cooked, basting with the marinade 3-4 times.

  4. Half an hour before it is done, pour ¼ pint of milk over the rabbit and continue basting.

Serve

  1. Serve the rabbit on a hot dish.

  2. Remove skewers.

  3. Squeeze lemon juice over the rabbit.

  4. Garnish with lemon slices.

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Rabbit + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
The main meat, which the marinade and slow baking keep moist and tender.
Port or claret
Adds wine flavour and acidity to the marinade, tenderising and seasoning the meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the marinade, helping to tenderise the meat.
Bacon
Fat that bastes the rabbit as it cooks, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
Dripping
Adds fat that promotes browning and richness during baking.
Milk
Added late in baking, it helps form a savoury sauce and encourages browning.

The step that matters

Basting with the marinade and milk. Rabbit is lean and dries out easily. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps it brown, while the milk added late adds fat and flavour to the pan juices.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, vinegar, onion, veal, milk, lemon):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, vinegar, onion, veal, milk, lemon. 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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