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Roast Rabbit

A stuffed rabbit roasted with a veal and pork filling, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and summer savory work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 671 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Roast Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Simmer the veal and pork in water until covered for 2 hours.

  2. Chop the meat finely and mix with rolled crackers, salt, pepper, summer savory, butter, and broth.

Prepare and stuff the rabbit

  1. Prepare the rabbit by removing the head, cleaning, and seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Stuff the rabbit with the hot dressing and sew up the opening.

  3. Position the rabbit on its knees and skewer it.

Roast and serve

  1. Rub the rabbit with butter, dredge with flour, and place in a baking pan with hot water.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, basting frequently.

  3. Serve with mashed potatoes and pour gravy over the rabbit.

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. Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Pork + summer savorytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the filling, giving it substance and a meaty flavor.
Pork
Adds fat to the filling, keeping the meat moist and tender as it cooks.
Crackers
Absorb the broth and bind the meat into a cohesive, moist dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the outside brown during roasting.
Broth
Adds moisture to the dressing and flavor from the simmered meats.
Flour (in the method)
Dredging helps the outside of the rabbit brown and form a slightly crisp coating.

The step that matters

Basting during the bake. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist and carries fat over the meat, which helps prevent dryness and promotes even browning in the oven.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, pepper, butter):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Summer savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, pepper, butter. 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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