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, Piquant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rabbit
Skin the rabbit.
Draw the rabbit.
Clean the rabbit thoroughly.
Cut the rabbit open lengthwise.
Lay the rabbit flat on a table.
Skewer the rabbit to keep its shape.
Sprinkle the rabbit with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Fry and cool
Place the rabbit in an oval pan with bacon fat, dripping, or butter.
Fry the rabbit until three-quarters cooked.
Drain the rabbit and let it cool.
Coat and bake
Brush the rabbit with oiled butter.
Coat the rabbit with egg.
Coat the rabbit with bread crumbs.
Coat the rabbit with bread crumbs again.
Bake the rabbit in a brisk oven until lightly browned.
Serve the rabbit on a hot dish with piccalilli or tartar sauce.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,448 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 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 meat, which is cooked through in stages to stay tender and moist.
- Bacon fat, dripping, or butter
- Fat for frying the rabbit, adding richness and helping the surface brown.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs stick to the rabbit.
- Bread crumbs
- Forms a crisp, golden coating that adds texture when baked.
The step that matters
Fry the rabbit until three-quarters cooked. Stopping at three-quarters lets the meat finish cooking in the oven without drying out. Frying it fully first would leave it dry and tough by the time the crumb coating browns.
“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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