Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Outlets of Rabbit, No. 3
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the fillets
Remove the fillets from the back of a young rabbit.
Fry the fillets in clarified butter.
Set the fried fillets aside to cool.
Make the cutlet coating
Scrape down the remaining rabbit flesh, then remove sinews from the scraped flesh.
Pound the flesh in a mortar.
Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.
Weigh the sieved mixture.
In a basin, mix the puree with ½ cup of cream, stirring vigorously.
Season the mixture with white pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg.
Bake and serve
Coat the cutlets thickly with the cream mixture using a palette knife.
Place the cutlets on a buttered flat dish.
Cover the cutlets with buttered paper.
Top with another dish.
Cook in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 20 minutes.
Make a plain white sauce from the rabbit stock.
Arrange the cutlets in a circle.
Place green peas in the center.
Pour the sauce over the cutlets.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rabbit + creamtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together409 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,375 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Rabbit + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together235 recipes
Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit fillets
- Provide the tender meat that forms the core of each cutlet.
- Rabbit flesh
- Pounded and sieved into a smooth puree that binds and coats the cutlets.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the puree, keeping the coating soft during baking.
- Clarified butter
- Fries the fillets with a clean, high-heat fat that browns them without burning.
The step that matters
Coating the cutlets thickly and covering them before baking. A thick, evenly covered coating and the buttered paper and dish on top trap moisture, so the cutlets stay juicy rather than drying out in the oven.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, cream, nutmeg, peas):
- Tarragonfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Thymefits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, cream, nutmeg, peas. 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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