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Rabbits Smothered in Onions

Rabbit smothered in onions is a stew of rabbit pieces simmered in a butter‑flour roux with onions and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rabbits Smothered in Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Gradually add the white stock, stirring until thickened.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Smother and serve

  1. Add the rabbits and onions to the pot.

  2. Cover and simmer until the rabbits are tender, about 1 hour.

  3. Serve the rabbits topped with the onions.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 protein, which becomes tender through slow, moist simmering.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter as a roux.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
White stock
Provides the liquid that cooks the rabbit and, thickened, forms the sauce.
Onions
Soften during the simmer, adding sweetness and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the roux for 1-2 minutes before adding the stock. Cooking the flour and butter briefly removes the raw starchy taste and helps the sauce thicken smoothly without lumps when the stock is added gradually.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, pepper. 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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