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Rabbit, Piquant

A rabbit dish seasoned with pepper, salt, and mustard, coated in breadcrumbs, baked, and served with a sauce of shallots, herbs, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rabbit, Piquant

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Skin, draw, and thoroughly cleanse the rabbit.

  2. Cut the rabbit open lengthwise and lay it flat on a table, skewering it to keep its shape.

  3. Sprinkle pepper and salt over the rabbit and place it in an oval pan with bacon fat or butter.

  4. Fry the rabbit until three-quarters cooked, then drain and let it cool.

Coat and bake

  1. Brush the rabbit with oiled butter, then coat it with egg and bread crumbs twice.

  2. Bake the rabbit in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until lightly browned.

Make the sauce

  1. Pound shallots with tarragon, pepper, salt, and mustard.

  2. Add gherkins, chervil, and burnet if available.

  3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk until thick, gradually adding salad oil while beating.

  4. Stir in vinegar, chili vinegar, and the pounded mixture, beating until thick.

  5. Keep the sauce cool until ready to serve.

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. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the rabbit as it bakes.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere to the rabbit.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar, thickening the sauce into a stable mayonnaise-style emulsion.
Salad oil
Forms the body of the sauce when beaten gradually into the egg yolk.
Bacon fat
Adds rich flavor and helps brown the rabbit while it fries.
Shallots
Add a mild, sharp onion flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the oil to the egg yolk. Oil must be added slowly while beating so it disperses into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving the sauce thin and oily instead of thick.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, butter, egg, bread, shallot, tarragon):

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, butter, egg, bread, shallot, tarragon. 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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