Skip to main content
Soup

Rabbit Soup a LA Reine

A rich soup made from rabbits simmered with vegetables and herbs, thickened with pounded rabbit flesh, and finished with cream and arrow-root.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rabbit Soup a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbits

  1. Wash and soak the rabbits thoroughly.

  2. Place the rabbits in a soup pot and cover with cold water or veal broth.

  3. Stew gently for about 45 minutes, then remove the rabbits.

  4. Take the flesh from the backs and a little from the legs, mince it finely, and pound it into a smooth paste.

  5. Set the paste aside, covered from the air.

Make the soup

  1. Return the rabbit bodies to the pot along with onions, celery, carrots, savoury herbs, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Stew the mixture softly for 4 hours.

  3. Strain the soup and let it settle, then pour off the clear liquid into a clean stewpan.

  4. Gradually mix in the pounded rabbit flesh while the soup is hot to avoid lumps.

  5. Season with pounded mace and cayenne to taste.

  6. Pass the soup through a coarse sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the soup to the pot, bring to a boil, and stir in the cream mixed with arrow-root.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rabbit + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the meat that is pounded into a paste and enriches the soup's flavour and body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Arrow-root
Thickens the cream and soup, giving a smooth body without lumps.
Onions
Build the aromatic base of flavour in the long-simmered broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the stock.

The step that matters

Adding the arrow-root and cream. Arrow-root must be mixed with cream before stirring in and the soup brought to a boil so it thickens evenly; added to cold or unmixed, it clumps and the soup stays thin or grainy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, veal, onion, celery, carrot, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, onion, celery, carrot, cream. 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

Cream of CeleryCream of Celery37 recipesIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes