Name: Rabbit PatL
Ingredients: rabbits, skinned and emptied; slices of bacon; minced meat (any kind); chopped parsley; chives; 1 large clove of garlic; mushrooms; pepper; white wine

Why it works: Chive and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,149 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rabbit PatL

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cut the rabbits into joints.
In a pate-dish, layer slices of bacon at the bottom.
Mix minced meat with parsley, chives, garlic, mushrooms, and pepper; layer this over the bacon.
Pack the rabbit pieces closely on top of the minced meat.
Cover with remaining minced meat and more bacon slices.
Pour in 1 to 2 glasses of white wine.
Cover the dish tightly and seal with paste.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until cooked through.
Let it cool completely before serving.

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.

Chive + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,149 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,150 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, meat, parsley, chive, garlic, mushroom, pepper):

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Tarragonfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, meat, parsley, chive, garlic, mushroom, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.