Why it works: Rabbit and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,334 recipes. Both carry 2-pentylpyridine, which smells fat. The science ↓
Roasted Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
Chop off the fore-legs at the first joint and the hind-legs above the knuckle joint.
Truss the rabbit and place it on a spit in front of a clear fire.
Roast for about 25 minutes.
Tie the bacon over the back to prevent burning, removing it a few minutes before serving.
When done, place it on a dish and serve with poivrade or another sauce.
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.
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Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,334 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- The main meat; its lean flesh firms and cooks through during roasting.
- Fat bacon
- Melting fat bastes the lean rabbit as it roasts, helping keep it moist.
The step that matters
Roast for about 25 minutes. Rabbit is very lean, so its muscle fibres lose moisture quickly once they are cooked through. Checking for doneness on time keeps the meat juicy rather than dry and tough.
“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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