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Curried Rabbit

A rabbit stew flavored with curry powder, lard, butter, stock, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Curried Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the onion and rabbit

  1. Slice the onion and brown it in the lard.

  2. Add the butter to the pan.

  3. Quickly brown the pieces of rabbit that have been rolled in flour.

Make the sauce

  1. Place the rabbit in a stewpan with the onion.

  2. Mix the curry powder into the butter.

  3. Add the stock and stir well.

  4. Pour over the rabbit.

Simmer and serve

  1. Skim off any foam when boiling.

  2. Simmer slowly for 1.5 hours.

  3. Add the cream just before serving.

  4. Serve with boiled rice.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 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

Rabbit
Long, gentle cooking softens its lean meat and connective tissue until tender.
Onion
Browning in lard develops sweetness and a savoury base for the sauce.
Curry powder
Provides the main aroma and warm spiced flavour of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the curry flavour through the sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid that becomes the body of the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for 1.5 hours. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the rabbit break down slowly, giving tender meat. Rapid boiling toughens muscle fibres and can make the sauce break or reduce unevenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, cream, pepper. 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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