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Rabbit Pate

A savory rabbit pâté made with minced meat, bacon, herbs, mushrooms, garlic, and white wine, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,149 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rabbit Pate

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the rabbits into joints.

  2. In a pâté dish, layer slices of bacon at the bottom.

Assemble

  1. Mix minced meat with parsley, chives, garlic, mushrooms, and pepper; layer this over the bacon.

  2. Pack the rabbit pieces closely on top of the minced meat.

  3. Cover with remaining minced meat and more bacon slices.

  4. Pour in 1 to 2 glasses of white wine.

  5. Cover the dish tightly and seal with paste.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until cooked through.

  2. Let it cool completely before serving.

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. Chive + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 firm as it cooks through slowly.
Slices of bacon
Add fat and savory flavor that keeps the lean meat moist during baking.
Minced meat
Binds the filling together and adds richness and body to the pâté.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savory flavor to the minced filling.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma and helps keep the filling moist in the sealed dish.

The step that matters

Seal the dish tightly. A tight paste seal traps steam and moisture so the meat cooks gently in its own juices rather than drying out during the slow bake.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, meat, parsley, chive, garlic, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, meat, parsley, chive, garlic, mushroom, pepper. 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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