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Mock Rabbit

A baked meat roll made from round steak, sausage, bread, egg, onion, and salt pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mock Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop the round steak and sausage.

  2. Cook the chopped onion in a small amount of fat rendered from the salt pork until soft, but do not brown.

  3. Add the moistened bread to the onion and cook for a few minutes.

  4. Let the mixture cool, then combine all ingredients and form into a long, round roll.

  5. Wet your hands with cold water to smooth the surface of the roll.

Bake

  1. Place the sliced salt pork on top of the roll.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 40 minutes.

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. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the main meaty body and bulk of the roll.
Sausage
Adds fat and seasoning, keeping the roll moist and flavorful.
Bread
Soaks up moisture and helps bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Egg
Acts as a binder, setting during baking to hold the roll together.
Salt pork
Renders fat over the surface that keeps the roll moist and helps it brown.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens in the rendered fat.

The step that matters

Cooking the onion without browning. Onion softened gently in fat becomes sweet and mild, while browning would add bitterness and a different flavor to the mock rabbit.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, egg, pork, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, egg, pork, pepper. 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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