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To Roast a Rabbit

A rabbit, drawn and skinned, stuffed with suet, breadcrumbs, herbs, and lemon peel, roasted and served with a butter‑flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast a Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stuff

  1. Wash the rabbit in warm water and dry it.

  2. Truss the rabbit and stuff it with the suet, bread crumbs, herbs, lemon peel, pepper, salt, and egg mixture.

  3. Sew up the belly of the rabbit.

Roast

  1. Suspend the rabbit before a fire, starting at a distance.

  2. Baste well with butter or veal dripping and dredge with flour two or three times.

  3. Once roasted, place the rabbit in a hot dish.

Make gravy and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine a little water, a lump of butter rolled in flour, and pour in the gravy from the dripping pan.

  2. Bring the gravy to a boil and pour it over the rabbit.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
The main meat, which is cooked whole and carved for serving.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat, giving the stuffing body and texture.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when roasted.
Butter or veal dripping
Basting fat that keeps the surface moist and promotes golden browning.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it clings to the rabbit rather than running off.

The step that matters

Suspend the rabbit before a fire, starting at a distance. Meat roasted too close to strong heat browns and dries on the outside before the thick centre cooks through. Starting farther away lets heat penetrate gently, and the cook can move the rabbit nearer as it cooks.

“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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