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Rabbit Pie

A pastry-covered rabbit and forcemeat pie with ham, eggs, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and ham work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 273 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Rabbit Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wipe and cut the rabbit into small joints.

  2. Use butter instead of suet to make the forcemeat.

  3. Shape the forcemeat into tiny balls.

  4. Season the rabbit.

Assemble and bake

  1. Arrange the rabbit, forcemeat balls, and ham cut into small squares in a dish.

  2. Cut the hard boiled eggs into small pieces. Pile the egg pieces on top.

  3. Pour in the stock.

  4. Cover with pastry.

  5. Bake for 2 hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 through long, slow baking.
Eggs
Add firmness and a rich, slightly firm texture to the filling.
Stock
Adds moisture and savory flavor, keeping the filling from drying out.
Ham
Contributes salty, savory flavor that complements the rabbit.
Pastry
Forms a sealed crust that traps steam and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cover with pastry. The pastry seals in steam and moisture so the meat cooks gently in its own juices. A poorly sealed crust lets moisture escape, which can leave the rabbit dry during the long bake.

“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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