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Rabbit Pie

A pie made with rabbit, pickled pork or bacon, herbs, and crust, baked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rabbit Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the gills from the rabbit and cut it into pieces.

  2. Add pickled pork or bacon, salt, pepper, nutmeg, herbs, and onion to the rabbit.

  3. Cover the rabbit with stock or water.

  4. Place a plate over the rabbit.

Cook and make the gravy

  1. Cook the rabbit in a 300°F (150°C) oven until half done.

  2. Let the rabbit cool.

  3. Pour off the gravy.

  4. Boil the gravy with thickening and additional flavoring if needed.

  5. Pour the gravy over the rabbit.

Crust and bake

  1. Cover the rabbit with crust.

  2. Glaze with egg if desired.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about an hour.

  4. Serve hot or cold, optionally with parboiled potatoes at the bottom.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 pie, becoming tender during the slow initial cooking.
Pickled pork or bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that moistens the lean rabbit meat.
Stock or water
Provides the liquid that cooks the rabbit and forms the gravy.
Flaky or short crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven, adding fat and a crisp texture.
Egg
Brushed on as a glaze, it promotes even browning on the crust.

The step that matters

Cooling before adding the crust. Letting the rabbit cool and pouring off the gravy keeps the filling from making the crust soggy and lets the gravy set and thicken before baking.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, egg, potato):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, egg, potato. 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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