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Rabbit Paid

A slow‑cooked rabbit dish layered with bacon, minced meat, herbs, mushrooms, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,149 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rabbit Paid

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the rabbits into joints.

Assemble the dish

  1. In a close‑fitting earthen or stoneware dish, layer slices of bacon at the bottom.

  2. Mix the minced meat with parsley, chives, garlic, mushrooms, and pepper, then layer it over the bacon.

  3. Pack the rabbit pieces tightly on top of the minced meat.

  4. Cover with the remaining mincemeat and more bacon slices.

  5. Pour in 1–2 glasses of white wine and shake the dish to settle the meat.

Bake and serve

  1. Seal the dish with paste and place it in a slow oven (300 °F / 150 °C) until cooked through.

  2. Let it cool completely 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. Chive + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provides the main lean meat that becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
Slices of bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the meat from above and below.
Minced meat
Forms a moist, flavorful layer that fills the gaps around the rabbit pieces.
Mushrooms
Contribute moisture and earthy flavor as they release liquid during cooking.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and creates steam and braising liquid inside the sealed dish.

The step that matters

Seal the dish tightly before baking. A tight paste seal traps steam so the meat braises in its own juices and wine. A leaky seal lets moisture escape, drying the rabbit and slowing even cooking.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, meat, parsley, chive, garlic, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, meat, parsley, chive, garlic, mushroom, 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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