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Rabbit Fried

Fried rabbit pieces served with a mushroom ketchup and water sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Rabbit Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the rabbit

  1. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add the minced onion and fry until golden brown.

  3. Add the rabbit pieces and fry until they are a nice bright brown.

  4. Transfer the rabbit to a hot serving dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In the same pan, add boiling water, mushroom ketchup, pepper, and salt, and bring the mixture to a boil.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the rabbit.

  3. Serve quickly and hot.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Is the main protein, which browns in the butter and becomes tender when simmered.
Butter
Carries the frying heat and browns the rabbit and onion, adding rich flavor.
Minced onion
Fries until golden, adding sweetness and aroma to the butter base.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savory, umami depth to the boiling liquid that is poured over the rabbit.

The step that matters

Browning the rabbit in the butter. The rabbit must reach a deep, even brown before the liquid goes in. Browning forms flavorful compounds through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or too little heat steams the meat instead, leaving it pale and bland.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, pepper, mushroom, ketchup. 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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