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White Fricassee of Rabbits, with Onions

A white fricassee of rabbit pieces stewed with bacon or ham, lemon, veal stock, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,292 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

White Fricassee of Rabbits, with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Cut the rabbit into neat pieces, removing any dirty skin.

  2. Cover the bottom of a stewpan with slices of bacon or ham.

  3. Place the blanched rabbit pieces on top and cover with lemon slices.

Stew

  1. Add 1½ pints of veal stock and top with more bacon or ham and paper.

  2. Stew gently on low heat for about 45 minutes.

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel and boil the onions, then drain and rinse with cold water.

  2. Boil the onions again, then immediately place them in cold water.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
Veal stock
Adds moisture and savory body to the liquid that cooks the rabbit.
Bacon or ham
Adds fat and savory flavor, and helps keep the meat moist as it cooks.
Onions
Add sweetness and body to the dish as they soften.
Lemon
Adds bright acidity and fresh aroma to the rabbit.

The step that matters

Stew gently on low heat. High heat makes the proteins in rabbit meat tighten and toughen, and it can dry the meat out. Gentle, low heat lets the connective tissue break down slowly, leaving the meat tender and juicy.

“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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