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Rabbit Pie

A savory pie made with rabbit, ham, hard‑boiled eggs, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,067 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Rabbit Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the rabbit into neat joints and remove the top bone from the legs.

  2. On a plate, mix the flour, salt, pepper, mace, and herbs.

  3. Roll the rabbit pieces in the flour mixture.

  4. Slice the hard boiled eggs and ham thinly.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a dish, layer the rabbit, egg, and ham alternately, sprinkling a little salt and pepper over the egg.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of water and line the edges of the dish with the mixture.

  3. Cover with rough puff pastry, decorate, and brush with beaten egg.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 to 1½ hours.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Meanwhile, stew the bones with a little water, a small onion, a blade of mace, and sweet herbs, seasoning with pepper and salt.

  2. Dissolve a little gelatine in the gravy and pour it into the pie when done.

  3. Serve hot or cold.

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. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  2. Rabbit + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Rabbit
Forms the main meat, which turns tender and moist during the long bake.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the mild rabbit.
Flour
Coats the rabbit so the juices thicken into a light gravy.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, sliced texture inside the pie.
Gelatine (in the method)
Sets the gravy poured into the pie so it holds its shape when cold.
Rough puff pastry
Forms a flaky, buttery crust that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Pour in the gelatine gravy when the pie is done. Gelatine sets as it cools, so the gravy must be fully dissolved and added once the meat is cooked. Adding it too early or too cold can leave it lumpy or runny, and the pie may not set when cold.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, ham, flour, pepper, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, ham, flour, pepper, egg. 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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