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White Fricassee of Rabbits, with Onions

A white rabbit fricassee cooked with onions, bacon or ham, lemon slices, and veal stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,292 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

White Fricassee of Rabbits, with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Blanch the rabbit pieces in boiling water.

  2. Wash the blanched rabbit pieces in several waters to remove impurities.

  3. Trim off any ragged skin from the rabbit pieces.

Stew the rabbit

  1. Prepare a stewing pan with slices of bacon or ham at the bottom.

  2. Layer the blanched rabbit pieces over the bacon.

  3. Cover the rabbit pieces with lemon slices.

  4. Pour veal stock over the rabbit pieces.

  5. Top with another layer of bacon.

  6. Cover the pot with paper.

  7. Stew gently for about 45 minutes.

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel the onions.

  2. Boil the peeled onions in water.

  3. Drain the boiled onions.

  4. Repeat the boiling process for the onions.

  5. Plunge the onions into cold water.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Rabbit + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together441 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during slow stewing.
Veal stock or broth
Supplies the liquid that gently cooks the rabbit and forms the sauce.
Bacon or ham
Adds savory fat that flavors the rabbit as it stews.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the dish as they soften.

The step that matters

Stew gently for about 45 minutes. Gentle heat lets the connective tissue in the rabbit break down slowly, so the meat becomes tender without drying out or toughening. A hard boil would firm the proteins and make the meat stringy.

“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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