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To Make a Rabbit Taste Much Like Hare

A rabbit is seasoned, soaked, and roasted to taste like hare.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Make a Rabbit Taste Much Like Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the rabbit in its skin for 3-4 days.

  2. Skin the rabbit without washing it.

  3. Season the rabbit with black pepper and allspice.

Soak and roast

  1. Baste the rabbit with the port wine and vinegar mixture for 40 hours.

  2. Stuff the rabbit and roast it like a hare, using the same sauce.

  3. Do not wash off the soaking liquid.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
The main meat, which becomes tender and juicy during the long soak and slow roast.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and its liquid carries flavour into the meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps soften the meat's surface.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, moisture, and golden browning on the roasted surface.

The step that matters

Do not wash off the soaking liquid.. The port and vinegar mixture has soaked into the surface of the meat. Washing it off removes much of the flavour and acid, while leaving the liquid on keeps the flavour in and the surface moist during roasting.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, port wine, vinegar, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, port wine, vinegar, 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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