Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Rabbit Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the rabbit and cut it into small joints, removing the liver.
If using bacon, scrape it well and soak in warm water for 1 to 2 hours.
Cut the vegetables into small dice or cubes.
Make the broth
In a large stewpan, add water, bacon, and rabbit; bring slowly to a boil.
Remove the scum as it rises; cook the rabbit for about 1 hour.
Add the vegetables, rice, and a little salt; continue cooking for another hour.
Finish and serve
Remove the rabbit, cut the meat into small dice, and return it to the broth to reheat.
Cut some of the bacon into dice; the rest can be served cold.
Season to taste 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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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- Supplies the meat that flavours the broth and is diced back into it.
- Bacon or pickled pork
- Adds salty, smoky flavour to the water as it simmers.
- Rice
- Thickens the broth slightly as its starch cooks into the liquid.
The step that matters
Removing the scum as it rises. Foam that forms while the liquid first heats contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Skimming it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy or greasy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pork, carrot, turnip, celery, rice, pepper):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pork, carrot, turnip, celery, rice, pepper. 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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