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Rabbit Pie

A savory pie made with rabbit, bacon, allspice, parsley, onion, and a meat-pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Rabbit Pie

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

  1. Parboil the rabbit until tender, then cut it into pieces.

  2. Season the rabbit pieces with pepper and salt.

  3. In a bowl, mix the rabbit livers, boiled bacon, allspice, parsley, and onion until well combined.

Assemble

  1. Spread the forcemeat mixture on the bottom of a pie dish.

  2. Place the seasoned rabbit pieces on top of the forcemeat.

  3. Pour in the water or gravy.

  4. Cover the pie with meat-pie paste.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 1.5 hours.

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

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

  2. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Forms the main meat layer, providing the substance and chew of the pie.
Boiled bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean forcemeat moist.
Onion
Contributes aroma and a mild sweetness as it softens in the filling.
Water or gravy
Supplies liquid that keeps the pie moist during the long bake.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Parboil the rabbit until tender. Rabbit is very lean, so it dries out and toughens during a long bake. Cooking it until tender before assembly helps the meat stay soft and juicy in the finished pie.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, allspice, parsley, meat):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, allspice, parsley, meat. 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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