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Gibelotte De Lapin

A rabbit stew cooked with bacon, onions, wine, stock, and bouquet garni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gibelotte De Lapin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the rabbit with a damp cloth and cut it into neat, small joints.

  2. Cut the bacon into slices.

Brown the meat and onions

  1. Heat the butter and bacon in a sauté pan over medium heat for 5 minutes, then remove the bacon and set it aside on a plate.

  2. Peel the onions and fry them in the same butter until golden, then add them to the plate with the bacon.

  3. Increase the heat, add the rabbit to the pan and brown it well on all sides.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle in the flour.

Stew

  1. Moisten with the stock once browned.

  2. Add the wine and bouquet garni and bring to a slow boil.

  3. Skim off any foam, then add the onions back in.

  4. Cover the pan and let it simmer gently for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long, gentle simmer.
Fat bacon
Renders fat into the pan that carries flavour and helps the rabbit brown.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the meat and onions and carries flavour through the pan.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce as it combines with the browned fat.
Chablis or sauterne
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the meat and sauce.
Button onions
Add sweetness as they soften and turn golden in the fat.

The step that matters

Browning the rabbit well on all sides. Browning creates deep flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale, steamed meat gives a flat stew, so the pieces need space and enough heat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, pepper. 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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