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 ↓
Rabbit, Tinned
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the rabbit from the tin and separate the pieces.
Cut the bacon into small slices.
Assemble and heat
In a jar, layer the rabbit and bacon alternately, with onion sauce on the top and bottom.
Cover the jar and place it in a saucepan of boiling water until the rabbit is heated through.
Turn out onto a hot dish and serve.
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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Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together273 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rabbit + saucetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together330 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,159 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Rabbit + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together284 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- Forms the main meat and gives the dish its body and flavour.
- Onion sauce
- Adds moisture and a creamy coating that keeps the layers from drying out.
- Ham or bacon
- Adds salty, smoky flavour that complements the rabbit.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, sauce, milk, ham):
- Mustardfits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, sauce, milk, ham. 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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