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White Fricassee of Rabbits, with Oniotis

A rabbit fricassee cooked with bacon or ham, lemon slices, veal stock, onions, and water.

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 Oniotis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch the rabbit pieces in boiling water, washing them in several waters to remove any impurities.

  2. Trim off any dirty-looking skin and ragged parts from the rabbit.

  3. Peel the onions and boil them, then pour off the water.

  4. Add cold water to the onions, boil again, and then transfer to cold water.

Stew

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

  2. Place the blanched rabbit pieces on top, cover with lemon slices, and pour in the veal stock.

  3. Add another layer of bacon or ham on top and cover with paper.

  4. Stew gently on a low heat for about 45 minutes.

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 main meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
Veal stock or broth
Supplies liquid that gently cooks the rabbit and builds a savoury sauce.
Bacon or ham
Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the meat and the stewing liquid.
Onions
Add sweetness and body to the dish as they soften during cooking.

The step that matters

Stew gently on a low heat. Low, gentle heat keeps the liquid barely simmering, so the rabbit becomes tender without toughening or drying out the meat.

“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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