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German Mock Rabbit

A meatloaf made from beef, veal, onions, herbs, breadcrumbs, and eggs, baked in a pork-lined dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

German Mock Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the loaf

  1. Mix the chopped beef and veal in a bowl.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, onion, thyme, and parsley.

  3. Add the bread crumbs and bind the mixture with the raw eggs.

  4. Shape the mixture into a loaf.

Coat and bake

  1. Cover the loaf with eggs and crumbs.

  2. Line a baking dish with slices of fat salt pork and place the loaf inside.

  3. Baste the loaf often while baking.

Serve

  1. Serve in slices, either hot or cold.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 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

Chopped beef
Provides the main meaty body and fat that keep the loaf moist as it cooks.
Chopped veal
Adds a softer, more tender texture to the meat mixture.
Raw eggs
Bind the mixture, as their proteins set when heated and hold the loaf together.
Dry bread crumbs
Absorb juices and soften the texture, helping the loaf stay tender.
Onion
Contributes aroma and mild sweetness as it cooks into the meat.
Fat salt pork slices
Lines the dish and adds fat that bastes the loaf and adds savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Binding the loaf with raw eggs. Raw eggs must be mixed evenly through the meat and crumbs so that their proteins set during baking and hold the loaf together. Uneven mixing can leave the loaf crumbly or loose in places.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, parsley, bread):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, parsley, bread. 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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