Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Rabbit Stewed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the onions and fry them in the butter until golden.
Remove the rabbit from the tin, cut it into even-sized pieces, and lightly fry them.
Make the stew
In a stewpan, combine the rabbit, onions, rizine, gravina mixed with a little water, and 1 pint of water.
Season with salt and pepper, then bring to a boil for 1 minute.
Serve
Serve hot with fried bread on the side.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,448 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
- Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers in the stew.
- Onions
- Soften and turn sweet when fried, adding depth of flavour to the stew.
- Butter
- Carries the onions' browning and adds richness to the frying stage.
- Rizine
- Thickens the cooking liquid so the stew becomes body-rich rather than watery.
- Gravina
- Adds savoury gravy flavour and colour to the stewing liquid.
The step that matters
Thickening the stew. Rizine must be fully mixed into the liquid before boiling, because starch thickeners clump when added to hot liquid without being dispersed first. Boiling then activates the thickening so the stew reaches an even, smooth consistency.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, pepper, bread):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, pepper, bread. 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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