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Rabbit, White Stew of

A stew of rabbit simmered in white stock and milk, thickened with butter and flour, and flavored with onion, celery, mace, peppercorns, carrot, and turnip.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rabbit, White Stew of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Wash and joint the rabbit, then place it in a stewpan with the stock and milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the blanched onion, celery, mace, peppercorns, and a little salt, then simmer gently until the rabbit is tender.

  3. Knead the flour and butter together, then add small pieces to the stew when the rabbit is three-quarters cooked.

Serve

  1. Serve with the sauce strained over, garnished with the previously cooked vegetables.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce when kneaded with butter and stirred in.
Butter
Adds richness and body to the sauce and helps the flour blend smoothly.
Milk
Gives the white sauce a creamy texture and mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and butter. Flour thickens only when its starch heats in liquid. Adding the kneaded paste in small pieces and letting it simmer lets it disperse evenly, preventing lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, milk, butter, flour, onion, celery, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, milk, butter, flour, onion, celery, pepper. 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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