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Stewed Rabbit

A rabbit stew made with onion, pork fat, spices, water, milk, egg, flour, served with toasted or fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Stewed Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare and clean the rabbit as directed for baking, then cut it into pieces and wash it in cold water.

Stew

  1. Put the rabbit in a pot with 1½ cups of cold water, onion, pork, and seasonings; cover and simmer until tender, stirring occasionally.

  2. Once cooked, remove the rabbit and keep it warm, leaving the gravy in the pot.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add 1 cup of boiling milk or water to the gravy, then gradually stir in the beaten egg and blended flour.

  2. Boil for one minute, pour the sauce over the rabbit, and serve with toasted or fried bread.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering in liquid.
Fat pork
Adds fat and richness to the stewing liquid, keeping the lean rabbit moist.
Egg
Thickens the gravy as it sets with heat and helps bind the sauce.
Blended flour
Thickens the gravy by absorbing liquid and swelling when boiled, giving body to the sauce.
Milk or water
Adds liquid to the gravy, with milk contributing richness and creaminess to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil for one minute after adding the egg and flour. Egg and starch thicken the sauce as they heat. Stirring in the egg and flour gradually prevents lumps, and a full minute of boiling cooks the starch fully so the sauce thickens properly and the egg is cooked through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, pork, nutmeg, pepper, milk, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, pork, nutmeg, pepper, milk, 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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