Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Rabbit, Fried
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the rabbit into neat joints and flour them well.
Fry
Heat the dripping in a frying pan until boiling.
Add the rabbit to the pan and fry until nicely browned.
Serve
Prepare a hot serving dish and add the butter, shallot, and ketchup.
Arrange the fried rabbit on the dish and serve immediately.
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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Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Rabbit + shallottop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together157 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Is the main protein, cooked by frying until browned on the outside.
- Flour
- Coats the joints so they brown and form a crisp outer crust when fried.
- Dripping
- Conducts heat to fry the floured rabbit and adds rich flavour and browning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a glossy finish to the sauce in the serving dish.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds savoury, umami depth to the buttery sauce served with the rabbit.
The step that matters
Frying the floured rabbit. The dripping must be hot enough to brown the flour coating quickly. If it is too cool, the rabbit absorbs grease and turns soggy instead of crisp.
“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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