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Wild Rabbit Pie

A savory pie made with rabbit, pickled pork, spices, stock, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Wild Rabbit Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Wash the rabbit pieces and place them in a pie dish.

  3. Add the pickled pork, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add mace, cloves, and minced shallot.

  4. Barely cover the meat with stock.

Bake and finish

  1. Cover the pie dish with a tin or plate and bake until nearly cooked.

  2. Remove from the oven, cool slightly, and cover with pastry.

  3. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and return to the oven until golden brown.

  4. Serve hot or cold.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pork + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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 as it cooks slowly in stock.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, fatty richness that flavours the meat and stock.
Stock
Supplies moisture so the meat cooks gently and forms a savoury juice.
Pastry
Forms a crisp, golden crust that seals in the filling.
Egg
Brushed on the pastry, it promotes even browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Barely cover the meat with stock. Using just enough stock keeps the filling concentrated and prevents it from becoming watery, while the covered dish gently steams the meat until tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, pepper, clove, shallot, veal, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, pepper, clove, shallot, veal, egg. 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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