Name: Rabbit Pies
Ingredients: 2 or 3 rabbits, cut into joints; 1 pound streaked bacon, sliced; Flour, for dusting; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; ½ pint good gravy; ½ pound half puff pastry; 1 egg, for glazing

Why it works: Rabbit and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,067 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Rabbit Pies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

Butter a pie dish and lay bacon slices on the bottom.
Dust rabbit pieces with flour and place a layer over the bacon.
Season with salt and pepper, then add another layer of bacon and rabbit, repeating until the dish is full.

Bake and serve

Cover with half puff pastry, ornament the top with leaves, and lightly egg wash.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1.5 hours.
Use a funnel to add gravy 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.

Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,067 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,334 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rabbit + eggtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together558 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Rabbits: Provide the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, slow bake.
Streaked bacon: Adds fat and savoury flavour that seasons the rabbit as it cooks.
Flour: Dusting the rabbit lightly helps thicken the juices and gravy around it.
Gravy: Adds moisture and savoury depth to the filling after baking.
Puff pastry: Forms a flaky, golden crust that seals the pie over the filling.
Egg: Glazing the pastry promotes browning and a shiny finish.

“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.