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Rabbit, Fricassee of

A slow‑cooked rabbit stew with bacon‑larded pieces and mixed vegetables, finished in a crisp oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rabbit, Fricassee of

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Remove the flesh from the back of each rabbit and cut into pieces.

  2. Lard one side of each piece with bacon in close, even rows.

Braise

  1. Place the vegetables in a stewpan and add enough stock to nearly cover them.

  2. Lay the rabbit pieces on top of the vegetables.

  3. Cover with greased paper and a tight-fitting lid, then cook gently for about 1 hour, adding more stock as needed.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the rabbit pieces to a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes to crisp the bacon.

  2. Brush the rabbit with glaze, if using, and serve on a hot dish with the sauce poured around.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Rabbit + chickentop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Carrot + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the lean meat that becomes tender during gentle, covered cooking.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the lean rabbit moist and crisps in the oven.
Stock
Supplies liquid that gently steams and braises the rabbit while forming the sauce.
Mixed vegetables
Flavour the braising liquid and sweeten the sauce as they soften.

The step that matters

Gentle covered cooking. Rabbit is very lean and dries out or toughens if boiled or cooked hard. A gentle simmer under a tight lid keeps the meat moist, and topping up the stock stops the liquid from reducing too far.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, chicken):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, chicken. 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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