Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Rabbit Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rabbit
Flour the rabbit quarters and fry them in butter until browned.
Stew
Place the rabbit in a stew pan with gravy and white wine.
Season with pepper, salt, and sweet herbs.
Cover and let stew until the rabbit is tender.
Finish and serve
Remove the rabbit to a deep dish.
Thicken the gravy with flour and butter, then pour it over the rabbit.
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 + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Rabbit + white winetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together132 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbits
- Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
- Flour
- Coats the rabbit to help it brown and thickens the gravy into a sauce.
- Butter
- Fat for frying that browns the flour-coated rabbit and adds richness.
- Good gravy
- Forms the liquid base of the stew, adding savoury flavour and moisture.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the stewing liquid.
The step that matters
Let stew until the rabbit is tender. Rabbit is lean and dries out or turns tough if cooked hard or fast. A gentle, covered simmer lets connective tissue soften slowly while the meat stays moist.
“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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