Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Rabbit Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Crack the bones of the rabbits and boil them with the ham or salt pork in a large pot.
Add the chopped onions and sweet herbs.
Stew the mixture slowly in 3 quarts of water for 3 hours.
Season to taste and strain the soup.
Thicken and finish
Thicken slightly with browned flour mixed with cold water.
Stir in the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.
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.
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Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together273 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbits
- Provide the meat and bones that give the soup its body and rich flavor.
- Ham or salt pork
- Adds savory, salty fat that flavors the broth during long simmering.
- Onions
- Build aromatic sweetness and depth as they soften in the broth.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the broth slightly and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
The step that matters
Stewing slowly for 3 hours. A slow, gentle simmer draws flavor and gelatin from the bones and meat without toughening the meat or clouding the broth through rapid boiling.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, ham, flour, ketchup, sauce):
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, ham, flour, ketchup, 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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