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Baked Rabbits with Rice

Baked rabbit served with rice, butter, egg yolks, and chutney.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Baked Rabbits with Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Season the rabbit joints with salt and pepper.

  2. Melt the bacon fat in a saucepan, add the rabbit, and steam over low heat until lightly browned and partially cooked.

  3. Remove the rabbit from the saucepan, drain the liquid, and set the rabbit aside.

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Place the rice in a saucepan with the stock and mace, and simmer until tender and the liquid is absorbed.

  3. Let the rice cool, then stir in the butter and egg yolks.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep dish and arrange the rabbit pieces in it.

  2. Pour chutney over them, then spread the rice mixture on top.

  3. Layer with the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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 + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Rabbit + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which turns tender and lightly browned during the initial steaming.
Rice
Absorbs the stock and mace as it simmers, forming the body of the baked layer.
Egg yolks
Enrich the rice mixture and set during baking, giving a rich, custard-like texture.
Bacon fat
Carries flavor and helps brown the rabbit while it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the rice mixture.

The step that matters

Let the rice cool before adding the egg yolks. Rice that is still hot can scramble the raw egg yolks, so they would not blend smoothly or set evenly during baking.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, rice, butter, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, rice, butter, egg. 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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