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Barbecued Hare or Rabbit

Barbecued hare or rabbit is roasted with butter, water, salt, pepper, and served with cresses and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Barbecued Hare or Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Skin the rabbit and chop off the feet, leaving the head on. Clean it nicely and empty the inside.

  2. Wipe the inside with a wet cloth and dry immediately.

  3. Skewer the fore- and hind-legs forward as if lying down.

Roast and baste

  1. Place the rabbit in a roasting pan with butter and boiling water. Be generous with the butter.

  2. Add salt and pepper, then cover tightly with an inverted roasting pan to keep in the steam.

  3. Set in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. After 10 minutes, baste thoroughly with butter and cover again.

  5. Repeat basting every 10 minutes for about 30 minutes.

  6. When the flesh feels almost firm, remove the top pan, baste again, and return to the oven until nicely browned.

  7. Total cooking time will be 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the rabbit or hare.

  8. Do not let the surface brown too much or dry out.

Garnish and serve

  1. Put a frill of cut paper over the bone of each leg.

  2. Garnish with cresses, sprinkle with salt and pepper, pour the pan gravy over it, and serve with Maitre de Hotel Butter.

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. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit or hare
Provides the lean meat that is cooked through and served as the main dish.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the surface moist and helps it brown richly.
Boiling water
Creates steam under the covered pan, keeping the meat moist while it cooks.

The step that matters

Keep the top pan on and baste regularly. Covering the pan traps steam so the lean meat stays moist, while basting adds fat that helps the surface brown evenly. Removing the cover too early or letting the surface over-brown can dry the meat.

“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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