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To Make a Rabbit Taste Much Like Hare

A rabbit is marinated, basted, and roasted with pepper, allspice, port wine, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the rabbit in its skin for 3 to 4 days.

  2. Skin the rabbit without washing it.

Season and soak

  1. Season the rabbit with black pepper and allspice.

  2. Add port wine and vinegar to the seasoning.

  3. Baste the rabbit occasionally for 40 hours.

  4. Do not wash off the soaking liquid.

Roast

  1. Stuff the rabbit and roast it like a hare, using the same sauce.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + port winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main meat, which is tenderized and flavored by the long hanging and soaking.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and its acidity helps tenderize the meat during soaking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps break down muscle fibers, tenderizing the meat during soaking.

The step that matters

Basting during the 40-hour soak. Keeping the rabbit moist and in contact with the liquid helps the seasoning and acid penetrate evenly, so the meat stays tender rather than drying or softening unevenly.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, port wine, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, port wine, vinegar. 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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