Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Fried Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the rabbit in water for 10 minutes, then drain and let it cool.
Cut the rabbit into joints.
Dip each joint into the beaten eggs, then coat with bread crumbs.
Season with salt and pepper.
Fry and make the sauce
Fry the joints in a mixture of butter and lard over moderate heat until browned on both sides.
Remove the rabbit and thicken the remaining fat with flour.
Stir in the milk or cream and bring to a boil.
Serve
Pour the sauce over the rabbit and serve hot with onion sauce.
Garnish with sliced lemon.
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.
-
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
What each ingredient does
- Rabbit
- Provides the meat that is cooked and served as the main dish.
- Eggs
- Bind the bread crumb coating to the rabbit joints so it adheres during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating on the rabbit as it fries.
- Flour
- Thickens the leftover frying fat into a sauce.
- Milk or cream
- Adds liquid and richness to the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
The step that matters
Fry the joints until browned on both sides. Moderate heat lets the coating brown and crisp without burning before the meat cooks through. Frying in butter and lard gives browning and flavour, and the leftover fat carries the drippings that make the sauce.
“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
Brown Bread461 recipes
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.