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Rabbit Cake

A baked cake made from minced rabbit, beef tongue, onion, mashed potato, and stock, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rabbit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced rabbit, minced beef tongue, chopped onion, mashed potato, and seasoning.

  3. Add the white stock and mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Form the mixture into a mold on a dish.

  2. Cover the top with bread crumbs and bits of butter.

  3. Bake until well browned.

  4. Serve with mushroom or tomato sauce.

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 + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Rabbit + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 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

Minced rabbit
Provides the main body and savoury meat flavour of the cake.
Minced beef tongue
Adds richness and meaty texture that helps the mixture hold together.
Mashed potato
Adds bulk and moisture, giving the mixture a softer, binding texture.
White stock
Moistens the mixture so it stays tender through baking.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp top that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown and gives richness.

The step that matters

Mixing in the white stock. Adding the stock and mixing thoroughly spreads moisture evenly through the meat and potato. Too little liquid leaves the cake dry, while uneven mixing leaves pockets that bake unevenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rabbit, beef, potato, bread, butter):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rabbit, beef, potato, bread, butter. 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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