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Turban of Rabbits

A rabbit dish with larded and plain fillets served over a mashed potato border and topped with a brown sauce and quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Turban of Rabbits

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fillets

  1. Cut off the fillets from the rabbits and divide each into halves.

  2. Lard six fillets and leave six plain.

Braise and sauté

  1. In a saucepan, combine the larded fillets with fried onions, parsley, and the herb bag.

  2. Pour stock over the fillets to half their height, cover, and braise for about 30 minutes.

  3. Sauté the plain fillets and arrange them alternately around the potato border.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill a border mold with mashed potatoes and turn it out onto a dish.

  2. Glaze and brown the larded fillets with a salamander.

  3. In a sauté pan, combine brown sauce and consomme, bring to a boil, and skim.

  4. Add sherry, salt, pepper, sugar, tomato sauce, and the rabbit forcemeat quenelles.

  5. Once the sauce is ready and the quenelles are cooked, place the quenelles in the center of the border and pour the sauce over the plain fillets.

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

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

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit fillets
Provide the main meat, with larded fillets browned and plain fillets sautéed for contrast.
Brown sauce
Forms the rich, glossy body of the sauce that coats the plain fillets.
Consomme
Thins the brown sauce and adds concentrated meaty flavour.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich sauce.
Rabbit forcemeat quenelles
Add a soft, tender texture at the centre of the dish.
Mashed potatoes
Form the border that holds the dish together and gives a creamy base.

The step that matters

Glaze and brown the larded fillets with a salamander. Intense direct heat browns the surface quickly, so the fillets must be watched closely to avoid drying or burning before they are glazed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, parsley, potato, sauce, sherry, pepper, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, parsley, potato, sauce, sherry, pepper, sugar. 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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