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Rabbit Pie, Superior

A layered rabbit and veal pie with bacon, eggs, and savory seasoning, wrapped in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Rabbit Pie, Superior

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. Soak the rabbit joints in lukewarm water for 30 minutes, then drain and dry them.

  2. If desired, boil the rabbit livers, mince them, and mix with the forcemeat.

  3. Prepare a savory powder by mixing nutmeg, lemon zest, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

  4. Line a pie dish with puff pastry.

Assemble

  1. Layer the veal, rabbit, and bacon in the pie dish, interspersing with forcemeat balls and hard-boiled eggs, seasoning each layer with the savory powder.

  2. Moisten the mixture with stock or water, ensuring the meat is not completely covered.

  3. Wet the pastry edges, cover with another layer of pastry, trim, and decorate it.

  4. Brush the top with egg and make a slit in the center for steam to escape.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C), covering with buttered paper to prevent burning.

  2. Serve hot or cold, optionally adding truffles or mushrooms, and pour in port mixed with gravy through the top slit after baking.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Rabbit + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, whose texture becomes tender and rich during slow baking.
Veal forcemeat
Forms soft, moist balls that keep the filling juicy and add body.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm texture and richness that contrast with the tender meats.
Streaky bacon
Adds fat and savoriness that bastes the meat and flavors the filling.
Lean veal
Contributes meaty structure and mild flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Keeping the meat not fully covered by stock. Moistening only partly lets the meat braise gently in steam and juices without becoming waterlogged, keeping the filling tender rather than soggy or dry.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, egg, lemon, 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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