Skip to main content
Main

Rabbit, Pilau of

A baked rabbit and rice dish cooked with onions, spices, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rabbit, Pilau 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. Skin, wash, and empty the rabbit, then cut it into 10-12 pieces.

  2. Rub each piece with a mixture of onion juice, salt, ginger, and lemon juice.

Cook the rice and brown the rabbit

  1. Boil the rice in stock broth until half cooked.

  2. Melt fat or butter in a saucepan and fry the rabbit pieces and sliced onions until lightly browned.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the meat in a deep earthen jar, layer with onions, and cover with rice.

  2. Add cloves, peppercorns, salt, lemon rind, and pour milk over the top.

  3. Cover the jar with paper and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  4. Add broth or more milk if needed when the rabbit is half done.

  5. Serve the rice on a dish, topped with the rabbit pieces, 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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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, which becomes tender during the long, moist baking.
Rice
Absorbs the stock and milk, forming the body of the pilaf as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the rice and meat stay tender in the oven.
Fat or butter
Carries flavour and promotes browning when frying the rabbit and onions.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and brown with the meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps tenderise the meat.

The step that matters

Add broth or more milk when the rabbit is half done. Long baking dries out lean meat and rice. Topping up liquid at the midpoint keeps the rice from sticking or scorching and the meat moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, ginger, lemon, rice, butter, clove, milk):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, ginger, lemon, rice, butter, clove, milk. 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

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipes