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Rabbit Soup a LA Reine

A rabbit soup simmered with onions, celery, carrots, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rabbit Soup a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Wash and soak the rabbits thoroughly.

  2. Place them whole in a soup pot and cover with cold water or veal broth.

  3. Stew gently for about 45 minutes.

  4. Remove the rabbits, take off the flesh from the backs and legs, and mince it finely.

  5. Pound the minced meat into a smooth paste and set aside.

Make the soup

  1. Return the rabbit bodies to the pot with onions, celery, carrots, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Stew softly for 3 hours.

  3. Strain the soup, let it settle, and pour off the clear liquid into a clean pot.

  4. Gradually mix the hot liquid with the pounded rabbit flesh to avoid lumps.

  5. Season with pounded mace and cayenne to taste.

  6. Pass the mixture through a clean sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the soup to the pot, bring to a boil, and stir in the cream mixed with arrowroot.

  2. Add salt if needed.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + arrowroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + arrowroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the meat and body stock that give the soup its main flavor and body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.
Arrowroot
Thickens the soup gently so it becomes smooth and lightly body-rich without clouding.
Onions
Build savory sweetness and aroma as they soften in the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory depth to the broth.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and color to the broth.

The step that matters

Stirring the hot liquid into the rabbit paste. Adding the liquid gradually while stirring lets the paste disperse evenly. Dumping it in at once traps lumps of protein that a sieve cannot fully smooth out.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, veal, onion, celery, carrot, cream, arrowroot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, onion, celery, carrot, cream, arrowroot. 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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