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Rabbit Mould

A molded aspic made from rabbit, celery, pimento, and gelatin, served with boiled salad dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rabbit Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Dress and cut up the rabbit.

  2. Cook the rabbit slowly in seasoned boiling water until the meat falls from the bone.

  3. Remove the rabbit and concentrate the soup stock to 2 cups.

  4. Strain the stock and skim off the fat.

Set the aspic

  1. Decorate the bottom of a mold with parsley and slices of hard cooked eggs.

  2. Soak the gelatin in cold water and add it to the hot liquid.

  3. Add the diced rabbit meat, diced celery, and pimento to the mixture.

  4. Pour everything into the mold to set.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled salad dressing.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Rabbit + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  3. Rabbit + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  4. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  5. Gelatin + celerytop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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 is set into the aspic as the main filling.
Gelatin
Sets the stock as it cools, giving the aspic its firm, sliceable structure.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh vegetal note against the soft meat.

The step that matters

Strain the stock and skim off the fat. Fat left in the stock stays on the surface or in the jelly and can make the aspic greasy and cloudy. Removing it leaves a clear, clean-tasting set.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, gelatin, parsley, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, gelatin, parsley, egg. 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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