Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Fried Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the rabbit in salt water, then rinse and dry it.
Fry a few slices of fat salt pork in a pan to obtain fat, then remove the pork.
Add butter to the pan and heat until melted.
Fry and serve
Place the rabbit pieces in the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook until well done and golden brown.
Serve hot, garnished with lemon slices and cress.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together832 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,371 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- Is the main protein, cooked through until well done and golden brown on the outside.
- Fat salt pork
- Renders fat into the pan, giving the rabbit a savory, rich flavor for frying.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor to the frying pan, promoting browning and a rich taste.
- Beaten egg
- Acts as a binder so the cracker dust or bread crumbs adhere to the rabbit pieces.
- Cracker dust or fine bread crumbs
- Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns and crisps during frying.
The step that matters
Cooking the rabbit until well done and golden brown. Rabbit is lean and dries out easily, so it needs enough fat in the pan and steady heat to brown evenly while cooking fully through.
“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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