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A LA Marengo

A rabbit dish simmered in white wine, brown and tomato sauces, served with mushrooms, croutons, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,164 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Wipe the rabbit with a damp cloth.

  2. Cut the rabbit into small joints.

  3. Season each piece with salt and pepper.

Braise the rabbit

  1. In a sauté pan, heat the butter and olive oil until hot.

  2. Add the rabbit pieces and fry until golden brown all over.

  3. Drain off the fat.

  4. Add the white wine and let it reduce.

  5. Mix in the brown and tomato sauces.

  6. Cook gently over low heat for 45 minutes.

Prepare the garnish

  1. Place the mushrooms on a buttered baking tray.

  2. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper.

  3. Add a small piece of butter on each mushroom.

  4. Cook in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes.

  5. Fry croutons of bread cut into crescent shapes.

  6. Brush the croutons with meat glaze.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange a bed of mashed potato on a hot dish.

  2. Place the rabbit on top.

  3. Skim the sauce to remove fat and scum.

  4. Strain the sauce over the rabbit.

  5. Garnish with mushrooms and croutons.

  6. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  7. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. White wine + mushroomtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,704 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together12,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 slow, gentle cooking in the sauce.
Olive oil
Carries heat for frying the rabbit, helping it brown evenly and develop flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the rabbit pieces brown during frying.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and its reduction concentrates flavour in the sauce.
Brown sauce
Forms the body of the sauce and adds savoury depth during the long gentle cook.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity, colour and sweetness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the rabbit until golden brown. Browning through the Maillard reaction builds deep savoury flavour. Pieces crowded in the pan or not dried properly will steam instead of browning, leaving the sauce flat.

“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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