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Fricassee of Rabbits a l’Italienne

A rabbit fricassee with mushrooms, cream, and herbs, simmered in consommé and finished with egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fricassee of Rabbits a l’Italienne

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, melt butter and sauté the mushrooms until they begin to fry.

  2. Stir in the flour, then gradually mix in the consommé.

  3. Bring to a boil, add the rabbits, and simmer until cooked through.

  4. Transfer the rabbits to another stewpan and reduce the sauce until thick.

  5. Mix in the boiling cream until it reaches the thickness of béchamel sauce.

  6. Pass the sauce through a sieve over the rabbits.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the dish, then add mushrooms, egg yolk, and a little cream.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with parsley, lemon thyme, and lemon juice.

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

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the main meat, which is cooked gently in the consommé until tender.
Flour
Thickens the consommé into a sauce, giving it body that clings to the rabbit.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it a smooth, velvety texture.
Cream
Adds richness and helps the sauce reach a smooth, thick consistency.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently but can scramble if the sauce is too hot. Add it off the heat or over very low heat, stirring constantly, so the sauce stays smooth.

“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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