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Boast Rabbit

A rabbit roasted with onion, carrot, butter, and water, served with cranberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boast Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Roast

  1. Place the rabbit in a dripping pan with the sliced onion and carrot.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then spread with butter.

  3. Add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.

  4. Bake in the oven, basting frequently and adding more water if needed.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, strain the gravy over the rabbit and serve with cranberry sauce.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + cranberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + cranberrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Is the main protein, cooked gently in the pan to become tender and juicy.
Butter
Adds fat that carries seasoning and promotes browning on the rabbit's surface.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and flavour to the pan juices that become the gravy.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the pan juices that become the gravy.

The step that matters

Basting in the oven. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps the rabbit's lean meat stay juicy while the fat and pan juices build flavour and colour.

Swap the cranberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, carrot, pepper, butter, sauce):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Cranberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, carrot, pepper, butter, sauce. 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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