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Dessert

Rabbits

A rabbit stuffed with seasoned bread, herbs, pepper, nutmeg, eggs, cream, and butter, then cooked and served with parsley and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Skewer the heads onto the backs and the fore-legs into the ribs of the rabbits.

  2. Shred the bread, parsley, thyme, marjoram, and lemon peel finely.

  3. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  4. Mix the seasoned ingredients with the eggs, cream, and butter to create a light stuffing.

Cook and serve

  1. Stuff the rabbits' bellies with the mixture and sew them up.

  2. Dredge and baste the rabbits well with butter.

  3. Once cooked, chop the livers after boiling and place them around the edge of the dish.

  4. Serve with parsley and melted butter.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Penny loaf (crumb)
Forms the bulk of the stuffing and soaks up butter and cream for a light texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the rabbit brown when basted.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Dredge and baste the rabbits well with butter. Butter carries heat and moisture to the surface, so frequent basting keeps the meat from drying out and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, thyme, marjoram, lemon, pepper, egg, cream):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, thyme, marjoram, lemon, pepper, egg, cream. 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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