Skip to main content
Main

Rabbit a LA Neapolitan

A rabbit dish cooked with tomatoes and lard, served with boiled macaroni and Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rabbit a LA Neapolitan

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rabbit

  1. Melt the lard in a frying pan.

  2. Add the rabbit joints and fry until golden brown.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, shaking the pan to prevent burning.

Make the tomato gravy

  1. Wash and dry the tomatoes, then cut them into pieces and place in a bowl.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of water to the tomatoes.

  3. Gradually add the tomatoes to the rabbit, one tablespoon at a time.

  4. Cook the mixture for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Arrange the rabbit on a hot dish, pour the gravy around it, and serve.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

  5. Rabbit + parmesan cheesetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 browns in the lard to build savoury flavour.
Lard
Fat for frying that browns the rabbit and carries flavour through the dish.
Tomatoes
Supply acidity and moisture that combine into the gravy around the rabbit.

The step that matters

Gradually add the tomatoes to the rabbit, one tablespoon at a time. Adding the tomatoes slowly lets the liquid mix into the pan without cooling it sharply or boiling off fast, so the gravy stays smooth and the rabbit keeps its browned surface.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, parmesan cheese):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, parmesan cheese. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes