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To Stew Rabbits

A rabbit stew simmered with butter, onion, pepper, mace, salt, ham or pickled pork, herbs, and optional mushrooms, finished with egg yolks and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Stew Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

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

  2. Add the minced onion, whole pepper, mace, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Add the ham or pickled pork and sweet herbs.

  4. Add enough water to cover the rabbit joints and bring to a simmer.

Finish and serve

  1. Once nearly done, remove the herbs, pepper, and ham.

  2. Thicken the gravy by stirring in the beaten egg yolks.

  3. Add a little cream and mushrooms if desired before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Rabbit + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the meat that becomes tender as it simmers in the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the onion flavour as it softens in the pot.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth to the gravy as it cooks down.
Egg yolks
Thicken the gravy as they set gently in the hot liquid, giving it body.
Cream
Adds smoothness and richness to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the gravy boils. Stir them in off the heat or over very low heat, and keep the stew from boiling once they go in.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion, pepper, ham, egg, cream. 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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