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Rabbit Pie

A savory pie with rabbit, oysters, mushrooms, eggs, and forcemeat filling, baked with Chablis.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rabbit Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Mince together veal suet, fresh pork, onion, bay leaf, cloves, pepper, salt, and parsley.

  2. Line a dish with the forcemeat.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place rabbit joints, oysters, mushrooms, and hard-boiled eggs in the dish.

  2. Pour Chablis over the mixture.

  3. Spread a layer of forcemeat on top and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

  4. Cover closely and bake at 350°F (175°C) until thoroughly cooked.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pork + rabbittop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal suet
Adds fat that melts during baking, keeping the forcemeat moist and rich.
Fresh pork
Forms the body of the forcemeat, giving it a firm, sliceable texture when cooked.
Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which cooks through under covered baking to become tender.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savory flavor that blends into the meat and pie filling.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, sliced richness and body to the filling.
Chablis
White wine that adds acidity and aroma, moistening the filling as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cover closely and bake until thoroughly cooked. Rabbit and pork must reach a fully cooked interior. Covering traps steam and keeps the meat moist, but the pie can still be underdone in the centre if baked too briefly, so check that the meat is cooked through before serving.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, onion, pepper, parsley, rabbit, oyster):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, onion, pepper, parsley, rabbit, oyster. 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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