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Rabbit, Fricassee of

A stew of rabbit with butter, flour, stock, milk, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rabbit, Fricassee of

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 the rabbit

  1. Cut the rabbit into neat joints.

  2. Rinse the rabbit joints in warm water.

  3. Place the rabbit joints in a stewpan.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a separate pan, then stir in the flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add the milk to the roux, stirring until smooth.

  3. Pour the milk mixture over the rabbit in the stewpan.

Simmer

  1. Add the sliced onions, carrot, turnip, celery, bouquet garni, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Simmer gently until the rabbit is tender, about 1 hour.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when melted into the roux.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by forming a roux with the melted butter.
Milk
Forms the creamy body of the sauce, mellowing the flavour of the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften in the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the roux. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the starch granules dispersed, so the sauce becomes smooth rather than lumpy. Stirring until smooth before pouring over the rabbit ensures an even, glossy sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, flour, milk, carrot, turnip, celery):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, milk, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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