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Rabbits in Papers

Rabbit legs are marinated, wrapped in paper with bacon or ham, and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rabbits in Papers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut off the limbs of the rabbits and set them aside.

  2. Chop the flesh from the body very fine and mix it with shallots, parsley, mushrooms, and garlic if using.

  3. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then moisten with sweet oil.

Marinate and wrap

  1. Marinate the rabbit legs in this mixture for 3-4 hours.

  2. Remove each leg, cover with a slice of bacon or ham, and wrap in buttered white paper.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the wrapped limbs slowly on a grill and serve hot in the paper.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the lean meat that is cooked in the parcel.
Bacon or cold ham
Lays fat over the leg, adding moisture and savoury flavour as it cooks.
Sweet oil
Moistens the minced mixture, helping keep the meat juicy during cooking.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavour to the chopped filling.
Shallots
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Wrapping and slow broiling the legs. Wrapping in buttered paper and cooking slowly keeps the meat moist and prevents it from drying out or burning on the grill.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, shallot, parsley, mushroom, garlic, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, shallot, parsley, mushroom, garlic, pepper, nutmeg. 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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