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Rabbits, with Herbs

A rabbit stew cooked with butter, wine, herbs, mushrooms, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Rabbits, with Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce base

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add the chopped herbs, eschalots, and mushrooms; mix well.

  3. Put the rabbit joints into the stewpan.

  4. Sprinkle with flour when the meat is firm.

  5. Add the white wine, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  6. Add the bunch of sweet herbs.

Simmer and finish

  1. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  2. Add a little gravy or stock.

  3. Add the lemon juice.

  4. Stir well.

  5. Add 1 oz of butter.

  6. Remove the herbs.

Serve

  1. Place the rabbit on a dish.

  2. Pour the sauce over the meat.

  3. Serve very hot.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat that is braised and served in the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the stewed sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce that clings to the meat.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, savoury sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the finished sauce.
Mushrooms
Contribute savoury, earthy flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Sprinkle with flour when the meat is firm. Flour added too early can clump or scorch in the butter, while adding it after the meat has firmed lets it coat the surface and thicken the liquid smoothly as it simmers.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, flour, white wine, pepper, parsley, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, white wine, pepper, parsley, thyme. 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.

More herb rabbit recipes

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