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Rabbit, Stewed

A stew of rabbit, ham, butter, wine, stock, mace, pepper, salt, onions, mushrooms, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Rabbit, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Cut the rabbit into small pieces and blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes, then dry.

  2. Fry the rabbit with the ham and butter until nicely colored.

Stew

  1. Pour off the fat, add the remaining ingredients, and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  2. Dish the rabbit and remove the herbs.

  3. Reduce the gravy until just sufficient for 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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Red wine + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 through long gentle simmering.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and fat that helps color the rabbit when fried.
Butter
Carries heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the meat.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the braising liquid, enriching the gravy.
Stock
Forms the moist cooking liquid that gently braises the rabbit and builds the gravy.
Button onions
Contribute sweetness and body to the stew as they soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Reduce the gravy. Reducing concentrates flavor and thickens the liquid. Stop once it just coats the rabbit, since over-reducing makes the gravy salty and sticky.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, ham, butter, red wine, pepper, onion, 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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