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Rabbit Mould

A rabbit stewed in stock, seasoned, gelatinized, and set in a mould.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rabbit Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Join the rabbit and place it in a jar in the oven.

  2. Add seasoning, gelatine, and enough stock to cover the rabbit.

  3. Let it stew until the bones drop from the meat.

Set in a mould

  1. Pass the stock through a sieve.

  2. Remove all bones from the meat and lay it in a wetted mould.

  3. Fill the mould with the stock.

  4. Make this one day and turn it out the next.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Rabbit + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it stews slowly.
Gelatine
Sets the cooking stock into a firm jelly once chilled.
Stock
Provides moisture and savoury flavour, and becomes the jelly around the meat.

The step that matters

Let it stew until the bones drop from the meat. Slow, gentle cooking breaks down connective tissue so the meat becomes tender and releases gelatin into the stock. Stopping too early leaves tough meat and a weak set.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, nutmeg. 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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