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Barbecued Rabbit

A rabbit seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, vinegar, mustard, and currant jelly or brown sugar, grilled and finished in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Barbecued Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Soak the rabbit in salt water for 30 minutes.

  2. Scald the rabbit in boiling water, then wipe it dry.

  3. Grease the rabbit with butter and sprinkle with pepper and a little salt.

Grill and finish

  1. Place the rabbit on a grill, turning it to cook evenly without drying out.

  2. Once browned, place it on a hot dish and butter both sides generously, adding more salt and pepper.

  3. Set the dish in the oven while preparing the sauce.

  4. Mix the vinegar, mustard, and currant jelly or brown sugar, then pour over the rabbit, rubbing it in.

  5. Pour gravy over the rabbit and 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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Rabbit + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

  4. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Is the main protein; turning on the grill keeps it cooking evenly and moist.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the outside brown and stay moist.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the basting sauce a sharp, tangy bite.
Currant jelly or brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and helps the surface caramelize.

The step that matters

Turning the rabbit on the grill. Lean rabbit dries out quickly over heat. Turning it frequently cooks it evenly and keeps it from drying out before it browns.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, pepper, vinegar, mustard):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, pepper, vinegar, mustard. 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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