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Rabbit in Slices

Rabbit in Slices is a stew of rabbit slices with pickled pork, onion, and a roux-based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and pork work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 832 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Rabbit in Slices

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. Fry the rabbit slices in a pan until browned.

  2. Add the diced pickled pork and chopped onion and cook until browned.

  3. Remove the rabbit and pork mixture from the pan and place in a stewpan.

Make the gravy

  1. Add enough water to cover the rabbit.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. In the same pan, mix flour and butter to create a roux.

  4. Add the roux to the stewpan.

  5. Stir until the gravy thickens to the consistency of rich cream.

  6. Add forcemeat balls if desired.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 as it simmers in the liquid.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury fat and flavour as it browns and renders into the dish.
Onion
Softens and browns, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy with butter, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds fat and richness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring the roux into the gravy. Flour must be cooked with butter before and while it is added, or the gravy can taste raw and form lumps. Stirring as it thickens keeps the sauce smooth and even.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, pepper, flour, butter. 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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