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To Fricassee Rabbits

A rabbit fricassee made with butter, water, lemon, anchovy, browning sauce, ketchup, lemon pickle, cayenne pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Fricassee Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fricassee

  1. Brown the rabbit pieces in butter until light brown.

  2. Transfer them to a stew pan and add water, lemon, anchovy, browning sauce, ketchup, lemon pickle, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  3. Stew over low heat until cooked through.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with a mixture of butter and flour, then strain it.

  2. Serve the rabbits on a plate and pour the gravy over them.

  3. Garnish with sliced lemon.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Anchovy + ketchuptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow stewing in liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and browns the rabbit pieces before stewing.
Anchovy
Adds a savory, salty depth to the gravy without a clearly fishy taste.
Browning sauce
Darkens the gravy and adds a deep, savory color and flavor.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with a mixture of butter and flour, then strain it.. Flour must be cooked into the butter and liquid so it thickens smoothly without lumps or a raw starchy taste. Straining removes any lumps or stray bits, leaving a smooth gravy.

“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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