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Rabbit Pate

A savory spread made from rabbit, pork, veal fat, herbs, and brandy, baked and served with beetroot or pickled capsicums.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Rabbit Pate

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped pork, veal fat, bay leaf, shallot, thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, and cloves.

  3. Line a pie dish with slices of fat bacon and layer the minced rabbit mixture on top.

  4. Pour the brandy over the mixture and cover with more bacon slices.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven for 2 hours.

  2. Serve the pâté on a flat dish, garnished with beetroot or pickled capsicums.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main body of the pâté, giving it its meaty bite and structure.
Fresh pork
Adds moisture and body, keeping the lean rabbit from drying out during baking.
Veal fat
Adds richness and melts during baking, giving the pâté a smooth, moist texture.
Bacon
Lines and covers the pâté, adding fat that keeps the surface moist and savoury.
Brandy
Adds aromatic depth to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Bake in the oven for 2 hours. Slow baking cooks the meat gently and evenly, so the fat renders and the proteins set into a tender, sliceable pâté. Too little time leaves it underset, and too much dries it out.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, veal, shallot, thyme, parsley, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, veal, shallot, thyme, parsley, 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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