Name: Rabbit with Caper Sauce
Ingredients: 1 rabbit, cleaned; ½ cup capers; 1 teaspoon flour; 1 egg-sized lump of fresh butter; 1 onion, chopped; 1 bay leaf; 12 peppercorns; part of a celery root; salt, to taste; vinegar, for pickling

Why it works: Capers and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,024 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

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.

Capers + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,024 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Capers + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together405 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Capers + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,381 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Capers: Add a sharp, acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the sauce, giving it body when cooked with butter.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and smoothing the sauce.
Onion: Builds a sweet, savoury base when sautéed in the pan.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps tenderise the meat during marinating.

The step that matters

Stew until tender. Rabbit is lean and can turn dry or tough if cooked too fast or too hot. A gentle, long simmer breaks down connective tissue, so the meat becomes tender while staying moist.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, capers, flour, egg, butter, onion, vinegar):

Tarragonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Garlicfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, capers, flour, egg, butter, onion, vinegar. 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.

Rabbit with Caper Sauce