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Matelot of Rabbits

A rabbit fricassee with mushrooms, onions, and a seasoned sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper 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 ↓

Matelot of Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the rabbits, mushrooms, onions, and stock.

  3. Cover and simmer gently until the rabbit is tender.

  4. Remove the rabbit and pour the liquid into another pot.

  5. Add enough flour to absorb the butter, then add stock to achieve desired sauce consistency.

  6. Boil for a few minutes, then add lemon juice, Cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.

  7. Return the rabbit to the pot and bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the rabbit with mushrooms and onions on top.

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

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through gentle simmering.
Butter
Carries the flavor and fat that the flour thickens into the sauce.
Flour
Absorbs the butter and thickens the liquid into a sauce.
Mushrooms
Adds earthy flavor and moisture to the dish.
Button onions
Add sweetness and softness as they cook in the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the flour to the butter. Flour must be fully absorbed by the butter before stock is added, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps. Adding stock too early can leave lumps that are hard to remove.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, mushroom, onion, flour, sauce, pepper):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, mushroom, onion, flour, sauce, 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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