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Timballe of Rabbits

A rabbit dish baked in a paste-lined mold with decorative force-balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Timballe of Rabbits

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan and brown the rabbit pieces.

  2. Season the browned rabbits with parsley, shallots, mushrooms or truffles, spices, pepper, and salt.

  3. Add white wine and stock, then simmer until the rabbits are cooked through.

  4. Cool the mixture, then butter a mold and line it with rolled paste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Press a thin piece of paste into the bottom, wash it with egg yolk, and press down firmly.

  2. Arrange small force-balls around the sides of the mold.

  3. Fill the mold with the rabbit mixture and cover with more paste, sealing it well.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours until golden.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, cut open the top and add a sauce of reduced espagnole or a ragout.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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 and juicy as it simmers in the filling.
Bacon
Wrapped around the meat, it adds fat and savory flavor as it cooks.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich braised meat.
Espagnole sauce or stock
Supplies moisture and savory depth to the filling and final sauce.
Mushrooms or truffles
Add earthy aroma and umami flavor to the filling.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the paste, it promotes a golden, glossy browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before lining and filling the mold. Cooling the cooked filling keeps it from softening the raw paste and melting the butter, which helps the crust hold its shape and bake crisp.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, shallot, mushroom, pepper, butter, white wine, sauce):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, shallot, mushroom, pepper, butter, white wine, sauce. 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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