Name: A Blanquette of Rabbit
Ingredients: 3 rabbits, filleted; clarified butter; coarse sea salt; 1 egg yolk; 1 tablespoon cream; lemon juice; optional: small stewed mushrooms, truffles, peas, or celery

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

A Blanquette of Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the fillets of the rabbits into small, thin rounds.
Heat clarified butter in a skillet and add the rabbit pieces, cooking over high heat for 1 minute until white.
Remove from heat and let drain to remove excess butter.
Place the rabbit in a saucepan with béchamel sauce and heat until very hot.
Mix in the egg yolk and cream, then add a squeeze of lemon juice.
Optionally, stir in small stewed mushrooms, truffles, peas, or celery for variety.

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.

Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Rabbit + creamtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Rabbit + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together406 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Rabbit + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together626 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, egg, cream, mushroom):

Coconutfits about as well
Lemonthe original
Strawberryfits less well
Vanillafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, egg, cream, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.