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Blanquette of Rabbit

A rabbit stew simmered in stock, finished with a beurre manié sauce, served with fried bread and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Blanquette of Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Cut the rabbit into joints: hind legs in two, fore legs whole, and back in 6 or 7 pieces.

  2. Place the joints in a pan with the hot stock, herbs, and onion.

  3. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours.

  4. Strain the stock.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add flour to the melted butter.

  3. Add the strained stock to the butter and flour mixture.

  4. Stir until it boils.

  5. Add milk, cream, and seasoning.

  6. Cook well.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the rabbit joints.

  2. Heat through.

  3. Serve garnished with fried bread, curled bacon, and lemon.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Rabbit + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 becomes tender when simmered slowly in stock.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, velvety sauce.
Butter
Forms the base roux with flour and adds richness to the sauce.
Milk and cream
Adds richness and a mild, smooth body to the finished sauce.
White stock
Gives the sauce its main liquid and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Stir until it boils after adding the stock. Stock must be added gradually to the butter and flour and stirred well, otherwise lumps form. Bringing it to a boil lets the flour starch swell fully and thicken the sauce.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, butter, milk, cream, bread, lemon. 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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