Skip to main content
Main

Rabbits Au Gratin

A baked rabbit dish topped with bread crumbs and clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rabbits Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Cut the roasted rabbit flesh into thin pieces.

  2. Heat a little supreme sauce in a silver dish on the fire until it begins to boil.

  3. Place the rabbit pieces in the center of the dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Dip square pieces of bread in clarified butter and arrange them around the rabbit.

  2. Smooth the top of the meat and cover it with bread crumbs, sprinkling with clarified butter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 10 minutes.

Brown and finish

  1. Brown the top with a salamander, then replace the bread pieces with fried cork-shaped bread.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Rabbit + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rabbit + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Forms the main body of the gratin, giving it its meaty bulk and flavour.
Supreme sauce
Adds moisture and a creamy texture that keeps the meat from drying out.
Clarified butter
Carries fat for richness and helps the bread crumbs and bread brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top of the dish.

The step that matters

Browning the top with a salamander. Browning needs intense direct heat for a short time; too little leaves the crust pale, while too long dries the meat and sauce beneath. Watch the top closely.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes