Why it works: Rice and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 851 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Stewed Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Skin and prepare the rabbit, then cut it into pieces.
Stew and serve
In a pot, stew the rabbit pieces in milk thickened with all-purpose flour and rice flour.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste.
Once cooked through, serve with a wall of mashed potatoes.
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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Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Rabbit + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together252 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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 stews slowly in liquid.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy cooking liquid that moistens the rabbit and carries flavour.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats and starch swells.
- Rice flour
- Adds thickening starch to the sauce, giving it a slightly different body from wheat flour.
The step that matters
Stewing the rabbit in the thickened milk. Rabbit is lean and dries out easily, so it needs gentle, moist heat for long enough to become tender. Keeping the milk at a gentle simmer, not a hard boil, stops it from scorching or curdling and lets the flour thicken the sauce evenly.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, milk, flour, rice):
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Shallotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, milk, flour, rice. 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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