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Soup

Rabbit Soup a LA Reine

A rabbit soup made by stewing rabbit bodies, then mincing the meat into a paste and reintroducing it to the broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 Soup a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbits

  1. Wash the rabbits thoroughly and soak them.

  2. Place the rabbits whole in a soup pot and add 7 pints of cold water or veal broth.

  3. Stew gently for about 45 minutes.

  4. Remove the rabbits from the pot.

  5. Take off the flesh from the backs and a little from the legs, then mince it finely.

  6. Pound the minced meat into a smooth paste and cover it to keep it fresh.

Make the soup

  1. Return the rabbit bodies to the pot along with onions, celery, carrots, savory herbs, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Stew softly for about 4 hours.

  3. Strain the soup and let it settle.

  4. Pour off the clear liquid into a clean stewpan.

Finish and season

  1. Gradually mix the hot liquid with the pounded rabbit flesh, adding the mixture slowly to avoid lumps.

  2. Season with pounded mace and cayenne to taste.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the meat that is pounded into a paste to thicken and enrich the soup.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and depth to the broth as it stews.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the broth during the long stew.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the broth during the long stew.

The step that matters

Gradually mix the hot liquid with the pounded rabbit flesh. Adding the hot liquid slowly to the smooth paste, while mixing, lets the meat disperse evenly and prevents lumps from forming.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, onion, celery, carrot. 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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