Name: Broiled Rabbits
Ingredients: 2 rabbits; Butter; Salt; Pepper

Why it works: Rabbit and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,448 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Broiled Rabbits

Ingredients

2 rabbits
Butter
Salt
Pepper

Directions

Skin and clean the rabbits, then wipe them dry.
Split the rabbits down the back lengthwise and pound them flat.
Wrap the rabbits in well-buttered parchment paper.
Place them on a buttered grill and broil over a clear, brisk fire, turning often.
Once cooked, remove the paper and place the rabbits on a very hot platter.
Season with salt, pepper, and plenty of butter, turning to soak up the butter.
Cover and keep hot in a warming oven until served.

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.

Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,448 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,334 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).