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Rabbit Fricassee

A stew of rabbit simmered in white stock, milk, and vegetables, thickened with a beurre‑roux and seasoned with peppercorns and bouquet garni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Cut the rabbit into neat joints and rinse in warm water.

  2. Place the rabbit in a stewpan and add enough white stock to cover.

  3. Bring to a boil, add the vegetables, peppercorns, and a little salt.

  4. Cover and cook gently for about 1½ hours, or until the rabbit is tender, adding milk as needed.

Make the sauce

  1. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a separate pan, add the flour, and stir gently without browning.

  2. Set aside the flour mixture until needed.

  3. Once the rabbit is cooked, remove it and keep it warm.

  4. Strain the stock and add ½ pint to the flour mixture, stirring until boiling.

  5. Simmer the sauce gently for about 10 minutes.

  6. Pass the vegetables through a fine sieve and stir the puree into the sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Season to taste, return the rabbit to the sauce, heat thoroughly, and serve.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long gentle simmering.
Butter
Combined with flour to make a roux that thickens the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the sauce into a smooth, coating consistency.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the sauce and the cooking liquid.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and body to the stock, which is later puréed into the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour without browning. Flour and butter must be stirred gently just until cooked. Browning changes the colour and flavour of a white sauce, and undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, flour, milk, carrot, turnip, celery):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, milk, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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