Why it works: Clove and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,150 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Stewed Babbit
Ingredients
Directions
In a stewpan, add the rabbit joints, then add the onions, cloves, lemon peel, butter, and salt.
Pour in enough cold water to cover the meat.
Cover and stew very slowly.
After 30 minutes, blend in the flour and stir it in along with the ketchup.
Boil for 3 to 4 minutes and serve.
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.
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Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Rabbit + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together315 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow stewing.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the stewing liquid.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid when stirred in and boiled.
- Onions
- Contribute sweetness and aroma to the stew as they soften.
The step that matters
Cover and stew very slowly. Slow, gentle heat under a cover lets connective tissue in the rabbit break down gradually, keeping the meat tender and moist. Boiling hard toughens muscle fibres and can dry the meat out.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, clove, butter, meat, flour, ketchup):
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Avocadofits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, clove, butter, meat, flour, ketchup. 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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