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To Make a Rabbit Taste Much Like Hare

A rabbit is hung, seasoned, soaked, stuffed, and roasted to taste like hare.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Make a Rabbit Taste Much Like Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the rabbit in its skin for 3 to 4 days.

  2. Skin the rabbit without washing it.

Marinate

  1. Season the rabbit with black pepper and allspice.

  2. Soak the rabbit in port wine and vinegar for 40 hours, basting occasionally.

  3. Do not wash off the soaking liquid.

Roast and serve

  1. Stuff the rabbit.

  2. Roast the rabbit like a hare, using the same sauce.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the meat that is roasted and carved, so its texture sets the dish.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and deep fruity flavour that soaks into the meat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps soften the meat's surface during the long soak.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the meat.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, pungent aroma that balances the sweet port.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the roasted surface brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Soak for the full 40 hours and keep the liquid on the rabbit. Port and vinegar slowly penetrate the meat and carry flavour into it. Rinsing the rabbit or washing off the liquid removes this seasoning, so the flavour stays only on the surface.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, port wine, vinegar, butter):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, port wine, vinegar, butter. 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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