Name: Rabbits, to Roast
Ingredients: rabbits; onion sauce; parsley; butter; liver

Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rabbits, to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Scald and chop the rabbits finely.
Baste the rabbits well while roasting.
Roast in a brisk fire for 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on size.
Prepare onion sauce to pour over the rabbits.
Mix parsley and butter with the parboiled and chopped liver in a tureen.

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.

Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,292 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Rabbit + livertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together233 recipes

Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, sauce, butter, liver):

Capersfits better
Garlicfits better
Thymefits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, sauce, butter, liver. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.