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Rabbits, Broiled

Broiled rabbit seasoned with pepper, salt, and breadcrumbs, served with mushroom sauce or ketchup and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rabbits, Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the rabbit with pepper, salt, and breadcrumbs.

Cook

  1. Place the rabbit with the inside facing the fire on a gridiron set high to avoid burning.

  2. Alternatively, wrap the rabbit in buttered paper on the gridiron.

  3. Cook until thoroughly done.

Serve

  1. Serve with mushroom sauce or ketchup and butter, or with parsley and butter.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  4. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  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
Is the main protein; cooking it thoroughly sets its muscle fibres and makes it safe to eat.
Bread crumbs
Form a light coating on the surface that helps the outside brown and crisp over the heat.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moisture, and carries flavour when brushed or spread over the meat.

The step that matters

Cook until thoroughly done. Rabbit is lean and dries out quickly over direct heat, while undercooked meat is unsafe. Keeping the gridiron high and checking doneness carefully balances the two.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, bread, butter, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, bread, butter, 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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