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Rabbits En Casserole

A rabbit casserole simmered with broth, white wine, herbs, and butter, served with orange garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Rabbits En Casserole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Dust the rabbit quarters with flour.

  2. Fry them in lard or butter until browned.

Stew and serve

  1. Place the rabbit in an earthen pot with broth, white wine, pepper, salt, sweet herbs, and butter.

  2. Cover and stew for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with sauce poured over the rabbit.

  4. Garnish with thinly sliced Seville oranges.

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. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Rabbit + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together132 recipes

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

  5. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

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
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender as it stews.
Broth
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the rabbit and forms the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the sauce while butter adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Sweet herbs
Adds aromatic flavor to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the floured rabbit. Browning in lard or butter before stewing matters because the Maillard reaction creates deep, savory flavor and color on the surface. Pale, under-browned pieces give a flatter, greyer sauce with less rich taste.

“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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