Skip to main content
Main

Rabbit, Stewed, Brown

A rabbit stew with onion, celery, herbs, and stock, browned and simmered for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rabbit, Stewed, Brown

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash, dry, and cut up the rabbit, dividing the legs if large.

Cook

  1. Brown the joints in a little hot fat for added flavor, if desired.

  2. Add plain stock and chopped vegetables, including the onion.

  3. Include a bunch of herbs and seasoning to taste.

  4. Cover and stew at 350°F (175°C) for 3 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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rabbit + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it stews slowly.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth to the stewing liquid as it softens.
Flour
Thickens the stewing liquid when used, giving it a fuller body.

The step that matters

Cover and stew at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours. Gentle, covered, long cooking breaks down the tough connective tissue in rabbit joints, so the meat becomes tender. Keeping the lid on traps moisture so the liquid does not reduce too far.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, celery, flour. 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.

More stewed rabbit recipes

in Milk 8French 4 See all 67 →

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipesCelery Cream SoupCelery Cream Soup15 recipes