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Ragout of Rabbit

A rabbit ragout simmered with port wine, butter, brown gravy, onions, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Ragout of Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Clean the rabbit thoroughly and cut it into neat joints.

  2. Blanch the rabbit pieces in cold water, then rinse in cold water and dry well with a cloth.

  3. Roll the dried rabbit pieces in flour.

Brown and simmer

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the rabbit pieces until golden brown.

  2. Add the brown gravy or stock, whole onion, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and lemon peel (tied in muslin).

  3. Season with pepper and salt, then simmer until cooked through.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Is the main protein, becoming tender and flavourful as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Butter
Carries the frying heat and promotes browning on the floured rabbit pieces, adding richness.
Flour (in the method)
Coats the rabbit so it browns in the butter and helps thicken the surrounding sauce.
Brown gravy or stock
Forms the cooking liquid that gives the ragout its body and savoury depth.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, acidity and aroma to the sauce as it reduces in the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Frying the floured rabbit until golden brown. Browning the floured surface creates flavour through the Maillard reaction. The rabbit must be dry before rolling in flour, or the coating turns pasty and fails to brown properly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, port wine, butter, clove, thyme, parsley, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, port wine, butter, clove, thyme, parsley, lemon. 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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