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Fricasseed Rabbit

A rabbit stew with butter, onion, broth, and cream, finished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricasseed Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Add the rabbit pieces and brown on all sides.

Braise and finish

  1. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

  2. Cover and cook for 30 minutes until the rabbit is tender.

  3. Stir in the heavy cream, season with salt and pepper, and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

  4. Garnish with fresh parsley before serving.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Rabbit + chickentop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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; browning and then slow simmering in liquid makes it tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and carries flavor while the onion and rabbit brown.
Onion
Softens and adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the sauce base.
Chicken broth
Provides the cooking liquid that gently tenderizes the rabbit and forms the sauce.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and body, giving the sauce a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Brown the rabbit on all sides. Browning creates Maillard flavor compounds and color that the braising liquid cannot add later. Pieces that are crowded or not dried will steam instead, leaving the sauce pale and flat.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, onion, chicken, cream, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion, chicken, cream, pepper. 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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