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Rabbits, &C

A rabbit stew simmered with bacon, ale, mushroom ketchup, port wine, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Rabbits, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strew bacon over the hare after removing excess fat.

  2. Layer hare and bacon in a jug, then add ale.

Cook

  1. Cover the jug tightly and place it in a kettle of cold water.

  2. Add a lid on top and boil for 3 hours for young hare, or 4-5 hours for older hare.

Finish the gravy

  1. Shake the hare in a stewpan with mushroom ketchup, port wine, mushroom powder, butter, and flour to thicken the gravy.

  2. Add lemon-pickle and browning to enhance flavor.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, 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

Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the meat and the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the butter and juices.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour form a smooth, thickened gravy.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Ale
Moistens the meat and adds malty flavour during slow cooking.

The step that matters

Keep the jug sealed and the water gently boiling. A tightly covered jug traps moisture so the meat braises in its own juices rather than drying out. Long, gentle heat breaks down the connective tissue in the hare, so it turns tender instead of tough.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, ketchup, port wine, butter, flour):

  1. Red currantfits about as well
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, ketchup, port wine, butter, flour. 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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