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Fricassee of Rabbit

A baked rabbit fricassee with rice, ham, onion, and sweet pepper in a wine and stock sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and pork work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 832 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Fricassee of Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Brown the rabbit

  1. Sauté the rabbit joints in the fat until lightly browned.

  2. Add butter to the remaining fat in the pan and sauté the onion, ham, and sweet pepper until browned.

Simmer and layer

  1. Stir in the stock and white wine, if using, and let simmer for 30 minutes.

  2. Blanch the rice and layer it over the rabbit in a casserole dish.

  3. Pour the stock over the rabbit and season to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the casserole and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour or longer, until the rabbit is tender.

  2. Serve directly from the casserole.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pork + ricetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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, moist cooking.
Rice
Absorbs stock and thickens the dish as it bakes, adding body beneath the rabbit.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and browned richness to the sautéed base.
Onion
Builds aromatic sweetness as it browns in the fat.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the rabbit joints. Browning in fat creates Maillard flavor on the surface, which gives the sauce depth. Pale joints produce a flatter, less savory dish after baking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, butter, ham, pepper, white wine, rice):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, butter, ham, pepper, white wine, rice. 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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