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Rabbit, Curried

A rabbit stew flavored with curry powder, simmered in beef stock and served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rabbit, Curried

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and sauté the sliced onions until brown.

  2. Add the rabbit joints and cook until browned.

  3. Pour in the boiling beef stock.

  4. In a small bowl, mix the curry powder and flour with a little water to form a smooth paste, then add it to the pot.

  5. Cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add a splash of lemon juice before serving.

  2. Serve the curried rabbit with boiled rice.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  3. Rabbit + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat that becomes tender and flavorful during the long, covered simmer.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and a deep base flavor for the sauce.
Beef stock
Forms the liquid that cooks the rabbit and becomes the body of the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice blend that gives the dish its characteristic aroma and flavor.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, cohesive sauce when mixed into a paste.
Butter
Carries the onions as they brown and adds richness to the dish.

The step that matters

Browning the onions. Onions cooked until brown develop deep, sweet flavors through the Maillard reaction and caramelization. Pale onions leave the sauce tasting flat and raw.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, onion, beef, flour, rice):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion, beef, flour, rice. 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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