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Rabbits in Batter

A baked rabbit dish encased in a rolled paste, seasoned with bacon, parsley, shallots, mushrooms, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rabbits in Batter

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Daub the rabbits with bacon and season with parsley, shallots, mushrooms, spices, pepper, and salt.

  2. In a stewpan, melt butter and brown the rabbits.

  3. Add white wine and espagnole sauce or stock, then let simmer until cooked through.

  4. Allow the rabbits to cool, then butter a mold and line it with rolled paste, starting from the bottom.

Build the pie

  1. Prepare a thin piece of paste for the bottom, making it an inch larger than the mold sides.

  2. Wash the paste with egg yolk and press it down firmly.

  3. Arrange small force-balls around the sides of the mold until they nearly reach the top.

  4. Place the seasoned rabbits inside and cover securely with the paste, sealing the edges.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours until the paste is a fine color.

  2. When ready to serve, cut open the top and add a sauce of reduced espagnole or a ragout of sweetbreads or mushrooms.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

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 becomes tender and moist when simmered in wine and stock.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the lean rabbit meat, adding moisture and savory flavor during cooking.
Butter
Fat for browning the rabbit, adding color and rich flavor to the surface.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps lift flavors from the browned pan.
Espagnole sauce or stock
Supplies liquid and savory depth that keeps the rabbit moist while it simmers.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the paste to promote browning and a glossy golden finish.

The step that matters

Cooking the rabbit until cooked through before cooling. The rabbit must be fully cooked during simmering, since it is only baked afterward to set and color the paste. Simmering gently in liquid keeps the meat moist; a hard boil toughens the fibers and dries the meat.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, shallot, mushroom, pepper, butter, white wine, sauce):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, shallot, mushroom, pepper, butter, white wine, sauce. 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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