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Rabbits to Boil

A boiled rabbit served with a butter and parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rabbits to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rabbit

  1. Boil the rabbit gently for 1 hour; if large, boil for 40 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and sauté the onions until soft.

  2. Add the chopped parsley to the onion mixture and stir well.

Serve

  1. Serve the rabbit with the parsley and butter sauce.

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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 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

Rabbit
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and firm as it cooks gently in water.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving the sauce a smooth texture.
Onion
Sweetens and adds savory depth as it softens in the melted butter.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a bright green flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boil the rabbit gently. Gentle simmering keeps the meat tender and prevents the proteins from tightening and toughening, which vigorous boiling tends to cause.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion. 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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