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Rabbit, Baked

A whole rabbit baked with bacon, stuffing, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and sauce work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rabbit, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Skin, empty, and wash the rabbit.

  3. Line the inside of the rabbit with 1-2 slices of fat bacon. Fill the rabbit with plain herb or veal stuffing. Sew it up and truss firmly.

Bake

  1. Place the rabbit in a deep baking tin to prevent dryness.

  2. Baste often with bacon fat or dripping.

  3. When almost done, flour and baste the rabbit to brown it nicely.

Serve

  1. Remove the thread and skewers, and place the rabbit on a hot dish. Pour a little brown gravy or sauce over the rabbit and serve more in a tureen.

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 + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Rabbit + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together441 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

  3. Rabbit + red curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Veal + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Sauce + red curranttop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together104 recipes

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 and cooks through in the oven.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and flavour inside the rabbit and keeps the meat moist as it roasts.
Bacon fat or dripping
Bastes the surface, adding moisture and helping the outside brown.
Flour (in the method)
Helps the surface brown and crisp when dusted on during the final basting.
Herb or veal stuffing
Fills the cavity and absorbs juices, adding moisture and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Basting and flouring near the end. Frequent basting keeps the lean meat moist, while flouring near the end creates a browned surface through the Maillard reaction. Flouring too early can burn or leave a pasty coating.

Swap the red currant

The recipe marks red currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, veal, sauce):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, sauce. 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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