Name: To Make a Rabbit Taste Much Like Hare
Ingredients: 1 young, full-grown rabbit; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon allspice; ½ cup port wine

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Make a Rabbit Taste Much Like Hare

Ingredients

1 young, full-grown rabbit
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon allspice
½ cup port wine

Directions

Hang the rabbit in its skin for three to four days.
Remove the skin without washing the rabbit.
Season the rabbit with black pepper and allspice in a fine powder.
Pour the port wine over the seasoned rabbit.

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.

Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + port winetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together400 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,334 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).
Rabbit + port winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Pepper + port winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,804 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).