Name: Rabbits, to Roast
Ingredients: 1 rabbit; 1 liver from the rabbit, scalded and chopped fine; Stuffing for veal; Coarse sea salt; Butter; Onion sauce

Why it works: Liver and veal match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Rabbits, to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing for veal and mix in the chopped liver.
Stuff the rabbit with the mixture.
Roast the rabbit in a brisk fire for 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on its size.
Baste the rabbit frequently to keep it moist.
Serve with good gravy and onion sauce poured over it, garnished with parsley and butter.

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.

Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together392 recipes

Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).
Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,292 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Rabbit + livertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together233 recipes

Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Swap the onion

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

Onionthe original
Shallotfits about as well
Mustardfits about as well
Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, liver, veal, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.