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Rabbit, Stewed Whole

A whole rabbit is stuffed with a forcemeat mixture, roasted, then simmered with bacon, vegetables, and a seasoned gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rabbit, Stewed Whole

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. Soak the rabbit in lukewarm water for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain and dry the rabbit.

  3. Boil the liver for 15 minutes. Mince the boiled liver finely.

  4. Mix the minced liver with beef suet, bread crumbs, parsley, sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and a little milk.

  5. Stuff the rabbit with the forcemeat mixture.

  6. Sew the rabbit up securely.

  7. Truss the rabbit for roasting.

  8. Lay the bacon slices on top of the rabbit.

  9. Bake the rabbit at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the diced bacon in butter with carrot and onions until lightly browned.

  2. Sprinkle flour over the mixture.

  3. Add stock or water, vinegar, mustard, pepper, and salt to the mixture.

  4. Add the rabbit and bacon to the sauce.

  5. Let the sauce simmer gently until the rabbit is tender, about 1.5 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the rabbit from the sauce.

  2. Keep the rabbit hot.

  3. Rub the vegetables through a sieve.

  4. Mix the vegetable pulp with the gravy.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  6. Pour the mixture over the rabbit.

  7. Serve 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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Main protein that becomes tender through long, gentle simmering in the sauce.
Beef suet
Adds fat to the forcemeat, keeping the stuffing moist and rich during roasting.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and bind the forcemeat so it holds together when stuffed.
Bacon
Melts fat over the rabbit and adds savoury flavour to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the bacon fat and vegetables.
Onions
Build sweetness and savoury depth in the sauce as they brown.

The step that matters

Let the sauce simmer gently until the rabbit is tender. Rabbit is lean and its connective tissue needs slow, low heat to soften. A hard boil toughens the meat and can break up the sauce.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, beef, bread, parsley, pepper, milk, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, beef, bread, parsley, pepper, milk, butter. 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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