Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
To Stew Rabbits
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rabbits
Soak the trussed rabbits in warm water for 15 minutes.
Place the rabbits in a pot with plenty of water and salt.
Stew the rabbits slowly for about 1 hour until tender.
Remove the heads of the rabbits.
Make the onion sauce
Peel the onions and boil them in a saucepan until tender, then drain and slice them.
Mix the butter with flour to prepare drawn butter.
Melt the drawn butter in the milk over low heat until it simmers.
Add the sliced onions to the butter mixture and bring the mixture to a boil.
Serve
Place the rabbits on a large dish.
Cover the rabbits with the onion sauce.
Sprinkle grated nutmeg over the rabbits if desired.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Butter and flour 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
- Rabbits
- Provide the meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and body to the sauce as they soften and break down.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and with flour forms the base of the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter into a roux-like base that gives the sauce body.
- Milk
- Makes up the liquid of the sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
The step that matters
Stew the rabbits slowly. Gentle, low heat lets the connective tissue in the rabbit break down slowly, so the meat turns tender instead of tough and dry.
Swap the nutmeg
The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, butter, flour, milk):
- Garlicfits about as well
- Capersfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, butter, flour, milk. 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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