Skip to main content
Main

Rabbit with Savoury Rice

A rabbit stew cooked with butter, onions, rice, and stock, simmered slowly for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rabbit with Savoury Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the rabbit thoroughly. Cut it into neat joints.

Make the rice

  1. Heat 2 ounces of butter in a saucepan. Add the sliced onions. Cook gently until browned.

  2. Wash the rice. Add it to the onions and butter. Stir over heat for ten minutes.

  3. Cover the rice with 2 pints of boiling stock. Let it simmer gently.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the rabbit in a little butter. Add it to the saucepan with the rice.

  2. Continue to cook slowly for 2 hours. Add more stock as needed to prevent sticking.

  3. When serving, pile the rabbit on top of the rice.

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 + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Rabbit + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Its meat is the main protein, cooked slowly until tender in the stock.
Butter
Carries flavour and browns the onions and rabbit, adding richness to the dish.
Onions
Browned in butter, they add sweetness and savoury depth to the rice.
Rice
Absorbs the stock as it cooks, forming the savoury base the rabbit rests on.
Stock
Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and rabbit and flavours the whole dish.

The step that matters

Adding stock to prevent sticking. Rice starch sticks to the pan as liquid evaporates during the long slow cook. Adding stock as needed keeps the rice moist and stops it scorching on the base.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, rice):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, rice. 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.

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipesRice and Cheese CasseroleRice and Cheese Casserole23 recipes