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Blanquette of Field-rabbits

A rabbit stew with butter, onions, ham, flour, broth, wine, parsley, mushrooms, egg yolks, lemon, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Blanquette of Field-rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the rabbit

  1. Heat melted butter in a stewpan and fry the rabbit pieces with onions.

  2. Season and add the raw ham.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Sprinkle flour over the meat, then moisten with broth and white wine.

Simmer the sauce

  1. Stir until boiling, then add the bunch of parsley and mushrooms.

  2. Boil quickly for 7-8 minutes to reduce the sauce by one third.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Skim fat.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken sauce with diluted egg yolks.

  2. Finish with lemon juice, pepper, and chopped parsley.

  3. Serve hot.

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. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the slow braise in the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce into a smooth, creamy coating as they set with gentle heat.
Flour
Coats the meat and helps thicken the broth and wine into a sauce.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a tender texture to the finished sauce.
Raw ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the butter-fried meat and onions.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when frying the rabbit and onions.

The step that matters

Thicken sauce with diluted egg yolks. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the sauce is too hot. Remove the pan from heat first and stir steadily so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, onion, ham, flour, white wine, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion, ham, flour, white wine, mushroom. 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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