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Rabbit, Roast

A whole rabbit stuffed with veal forcemeat, bacon, and flour, roasted and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,067 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Rabbit, Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Skin, empty, and wash the rabbit.

  2. Optionally line the inside with fat bacon before adding the forcemeat.

  3. Fill the inside with veal forcemeat and sew it up securely.

  4. Truss the rabbit with forelegs back, hind legs forward, and head upright with a skewer.

  5. Place a slice of fat bacon over the back of the rabbit.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast over a clear fire, basting liberally.

  2. When partially roasted, flour the rabbit and baste again.

  3. Once fully cooked, remove from heat, take out the skewers, and serve on a hot dish with gravy poured over it.

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. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  2. Rabbit + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together441 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

  3. Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main body of the dish, with lean meat that cooks through over the fire.
Veal forcemeat
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and richness as it cooks inside the rabbit.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that bastes the lean rabbit meat and keeps it moist as it roasts.
Flour
Dusted on partway through roasting, it helps form a browned, crisp outer crust.
Gravy
Poured over the finished rabbit, it adds moisture and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Basting during the roast. Lean rabbit meat dries out easily over a fire. Frequent basting with fat and juices keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

“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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