Why it works: Carrot and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,563 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Civet of Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Prepare the rabbit by cleaning and cutting it into pieces.
Season the rabbit pieces with coarse sea salt and pepper.
Braise
In a pot, melt butter and sauté chopped onions and carrots until soft.
Add the rabbit pieces and brown them on all sides.
Pour in enough water or stock to cover the rabbit, add herbs, and bring to a simmer.
Cover and cook for about 1 hour or until the rabbit is tender.
Serve hot with the sauce over the rabbit.
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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Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,563 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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 simmering.
- Onions
- Soften and sweeten as they cook, building a flavour base for the sauce.
- Carrots
- Add gentle sweetness and body to the sauce as they soften in butter.
- Butter
- Carries the aromatics and adds richness to the sauce.
The step that matters
Brown the rabbit on all sides. Browning creates deep flavour through the Maillard reaction, which only happens on dry, hot surfaces. Crowding the pot or leaving moisture on the pieces causes steaming, leaving the stew pale and flat-tasting.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, butter, carrot, thyme):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, butter, carrot, thyme. 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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