Why it works: White wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓
Rabbit En Gibelotte, Fricasseed
Ingredients
Directions
Brown and build
Brown small bacon dice in a stew pan with a good amount of butter.
Remove the bacon and add the rabbit to the pan, browning it nicely all over.
Return the bacon to the pan, then sprinkle in the flour.
Gradually moisten with broth and white wine, seasoning with pepper, salt, and bouquet garni.
Finish and serve
Add small onions and button mushrooms.
Serve with fried or toasted bread arranged around the dish.
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.
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White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,765 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit (in the method)
- Provides the main meat, which browns and becomes tender as it simmers.
- Bacon
- Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the butter and the browned pan base.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce once moistened.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce and balance the richness.
- Button mushrooms
- Add earthy flavour and moisture to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Browning the rabbit. Searing the rabbit over good heat builds browned flavour on the pan and the meat surface. Pale, crowded meat tends to stew rather than brown, leaving a flatter sauce.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, white wine, pepper, mushroom, bread):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, white wine, pepper, mushroom, bread. 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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