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Rabbit Salad, Simple

A cold rabbit salad served on toasted bread squares with lettuce, onion, anchovies, parsley, beetroot, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 678 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Rabbit Salad, Simple

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Toast the bread slices on both sides until browned, then let them cool and cut into squares.

  2. Place a slice of cold roast rabbit on each square of bread.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the bread squares on a dish, alternating with small salad or shredded lettuce.

  2. Sprinkle the dish with minced boiled onion, chopped anchovies, and shredded parsley.

  3. Garnish with parsley and sliced beetroot, then pour mayonnaise sauce over the salad just before serving.

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. Lettuce + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Parsley + beetroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together745 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  5. Onion + beetroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,261 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

Stale bread
Toasted bread forms a crisp, sturdy base that holds the rabbit and dressing.
Cold roast rabbit
Provides the main protein and savory meat flavor of the salad.
Lettuce
Adds fresh, crisp texture and moisture against the richer ingredients.
Boiled onion
Contributes mild, sharp flavor and a soft texture through the salad.
Anchovies
Adds salty, savory depth that enhances the other flavors.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds fat and creaminess, coating the salad and adding richness.

The step that matters

Toast the bread until browned on both sides. Thorough browning dries the bread and builds toasty flavor, so it stays crisp and sturdy rather than soggy under the rabbit and mayonnaise.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, rabbit, lettuce, parsley, beetroot, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, rabbit, lettuce, parsley, beetroot, sauce. 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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