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Matelote of Rabbits

A rabbit stew with béchamel sauce, cocks' combs, pickled cucumbers, ham, tongue, omelet squares, and stewed mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and mushroom work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 667 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Matelote of Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the rabbit

  1. Blanch and wash the rabbit pieces.

  2. Place them in a stewpan with ½ cup of water, cover tightly, and cook until nearly done.

  3. Ensure the liquid remains colorless and is almost reduced.

Finish and serve

  1. Add ½ pint of béchamel sauce, cocks' combs, pickled cucumbers, ham, tongue, omelet squares, and stewed mushrooms.

  2. Stew together for 10 minutes and serve immediately.

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. Cucumber + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together667 recipes

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

  2. Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Rabbit + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 covered, gentle cooking in a little water.
Béchamel sauce
Adds a creamy, smooth body that coats the meat and other ingredients.
Ham
Contributes savory, salty flavor to the stew.
Tongue
Adds richness and a meaty texture to the stew.
Eggs
Omelet squares add soft, tender bites and body to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Keep the cooking liquid colorless and nearly reduced. Cooking the rabbit covered in a small amount of water keeps the liquid clear and concentrated. If it browns or reduces too far before the béchamel goes in, the sauce can taste harsh and lose its delicate color.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, sauce, ham, egg, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, sauce, ham, egg, mushroom. 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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