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Rabbit Soup

A hearty soup made with rabbit, stock, wine, and a liver-based thickener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Port wine and white wine share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Rabbit Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Place rabbit pieces in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  2. Once the scum has cleared, add the stock and flavorings. Simmer gently until the meat is tender.

Cool and skim

  1. Remove from heat and let cool overnight. Skim off the fat before reheating.

Finish and serve

  1. Take out the liver, mash it through a sieve, and mix with a little flour and butter.

  2. Add the liver mixture, port, white wine, walnut ketchup, and lemon pickle to the soup. Stir well and serve.

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. Port wine + white winetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Rabbit + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long gentle simmering.
Stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the savory flavor of the soup.
Liver (in the method)
Mashed into the soup, it adds richness and body to the broth.
Flour and butter
Cooked together and stirred in, they thicken the soup slightly.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavor to the finished soup.
White wine
Adds acidity and brightness that lift the richer flavors.

The step that matters

Skim the fat after overnight cooling. Fat that is not removed after chilling will stay as a greasy layer when the soup is reheated. Fat solidifies on top as the soup cools, so it can be lifted off cleanly before reheating.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, beef, onion, flour, butter, port wine, white wine):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, beef, onion, flour, butter, port wine, white wine. 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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