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Gibelotte of Rabbits

A rabbit stew simmered with butter, onion, carrots, broth, wine, bay leaf, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Gibelotte of Rabbits

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 stew

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the rabbit pieces and brown them on all sides.

  3. Stir in the onion and carrots, cooking until softened.

  4. Pour in the chicken broth and white wine.

  5. Add the bay leaf, salt, and pepper.

Simmer and serve

  1. Cover and simmer for 1 hour until the rabbit is tender.

  2. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the parsley 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow simmering.
Butter
Carries fat for browning the rabbit and adds richness to the sauce.
Onion
Softens and adds savory sweetness to the base of the stew.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body as they soften in the liquid.
Chicken broth
Supplies the main cooking liquid that moistens and flavors the meat.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce as it simmers.

The step that matters

Browning the rabbit pieces. Searing the meat on all sides creates browned flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pieces that are crowded or wet will steam instead, producing a paler, blander stew.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, carrot, chicken, white wine, pepper, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, carrot, chicken, white wine, pepper, parsley. 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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