Why it works: Rabbit and veal work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 441 recipes. Both carry 2-pentylpyridine, which smells fat. The science ↓
Jugged Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare and roast
Fill the belly of the rabbit with the forcemeat and sew it closed.
Truss the rabbit nicely and roast it at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting constantly.
Serve
Serve with red currant jelly and gravy in a tureen.
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.
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Rabbit + vealtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together441 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).
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Rabbit + red curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Veal + red curranttop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- Lean meat that forms the body of the dish and is cooked whole.
- Veal forcemeat
- Adds moisture and richness to the lean rabbit as it cooks.
- Gravy
- Adds moisture and savory flavor to the rabbit at serving.
- Red currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich meat.
The step that matters
Roasting and basting constantly. Rabbit is very lean and dries out quickly in the oven. Frequent basting with the cooking juices keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly, so the meat stays tender.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, veal):
- Lemonfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Mangofits about as well
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal. 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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