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Rabbit Pie

A pie of rabbit joints layered with a chopped liver and bread crumb mixture, with beef steak at the base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rabbit Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the beef steak at the bottom of a pie dish.

  3. Cut the rabbit into joints.

  4. Scald the livers and chop them.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the chopped livers with butter, bread crumbs, pepper, and salt, then layer this mixture between the rabbit joints.

  2. If making a delicate pie, pound the scalded livers and brains with bacon or ham, butter, bread crumbs, egg yolk, and seasonings.

  3. Spread this mixture at the bottom of the pie or form it into balls.

  4. Bake for 2 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Beef + rabbittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms a savoury base layer that adds meaty flavour beneath the rabbit.
Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, slow bake.
Rabbit livers
Add rich, deep flavour and a soft, spreadable texture when chopped and mixed.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and liver juices, helping bind the layered filling together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the liver filling moist and flavourful.

“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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