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Rabbit in Cream Sauce

A rabbit simmered in stock, then finished in a butter‑flour cream sauce with egg yolk, garnished with bacon and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Rabbit in Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Put the head and trimmings into a pint of stock or water.

  2. Add onion, mace, lemon peel, salt, pepper, and herbs.

  3. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Strain the stock.

  5. Return the stock to the saucepan.

  6. Add the rabbit joints.

  7. Simmer gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  8. Lift out the rabbit pieces.

  9. Strain the broth into a basin.

  10. Rinse the saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in the saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a smooth mixture.

  3. Gradually add the stock while stirring.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Add the rabbit back in.

  6. When it boils again, remove from heat.

  7. Stir in the beaten egg yolk mixed with cream.

  8. Do not let the sauce boil after adding the egg, or it will curdle.

  9. Adjust salt if needed.

Serve

  1. Place the rabbit joints on a hot dish.

  2. Pour the sauce over.

  3. Garnish with bacon and lemon slices.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat that is braised and served in the sauce.
Butter
Melted with flour to form the roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the stock into a smooth sauce.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the cream sauce when stirred in off the heat.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, mellowing its flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk and cream. Egg proteins set when heated, so if the sauce boils after the egg is added it will curdle and turn grainy. Removing it from the heat first keeps the sauce smooth and thick.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, lemon, pepper, thyme, parsley, rabbit):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, lemon, pepper, thyme, parsley, rabbit. 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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