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Rabbits, to Roast

A rabbit roasted with a veal-style stuffing and liver, served with gravy and onion sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and liver match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Rabbits, to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stuff

  1. Prepare the stuffing as for veal, adding the chopped rabbit liver.

  2. Stuff the rabbit with the mixture.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the rabbit in a brisk fire for 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on its size, basting frequently.

  2. Serve with good gravy and onion sauce poured over the top.

  3. Garnish with parsley and butter, adding the parboiled and chopped liver in a serving dish.

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. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Rabbit + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which roasts until cooked through and tender.
Rabbit liver
Adds rich, savory flavor to the stuffing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the surface brown and the flavor feel rounder.

The step that matters

Roast in a brisk fire, basting frequently. Rabbit is lean and dries out quickly. Frequent basting with the pan juices adds moisture to the surface, while the time must be judged by size so the meat is cooked without drying out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, veal, liver, butter, sauce):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, liver, butter, sauce. 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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