Skip to main content
Main

Fricasseed Rabbit

A rabbit fricassée with pickled pork, onion, parsley, mace, cloves, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricasseed Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the rabbit pieces in cold water for a few minutes, then drain.

Simmer

  1. Place the rabbit and pickled pork in a saucepan with pepper and cover with water.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Add the chopped onion, parsley, mace, and cloves.

  4. Mix the flour with a little water to make a smooth paste, then stir it into the saucepan.

  5. Continue to simmer until the meat is tender.

Finish the sauce

  1. Stir in the cream; if the sauce is not thick enough, add a little more flour.

  2. Bring to a boil and serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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, gentle simmering.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the braising liquid and the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it is stirred in.
Cream
Enriches the sauce, adding fat for a richer texture and mellow flavour.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour paste. Flour must be mixed smooth with liquid before adding, otherwise it clumps and will not thicken the sauce evenly. Starch thickens best when fully dispersed and heated.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, pepper, onion, parsley, clove, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, pepper, onion, parsley, clove, flour. 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.

You might also like

Pork CakePork Cake107 recipesRoast PorkRoast Pork82 recipesRabbit PattiesRabbit Patties6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes