Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
To Stew Rabbits
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rabbit
Soak the trussed rabbits in warm water for 15 minutes.
Place them in a pot with plenty of water and salt, and stew slowly for about 1 hour until tender.
Make the onion sauce
Peel and boil the onions in a saucepan until tender, then drain and slice them.
In a separate pan, melt the butter with the flour and milk over low heat, stirring until smooth.
Add the sliced onions to the butter mixture and bring to a boil.
Serve
Once the rabbits are done, place them on a serving dish, cover with the onion sauce, and sprinkle with grated nutmeg if desired.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- Rabbits
- Form the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and body to the sauce as they soften.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour into the sauce.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the sauce when cooked with the butter and milk.
- Milk
- Adds liquid and creaminess to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the butter, flour and milk until smooth. Flour thickens best when it is dispersed evenly in fat and liquid over gentle heat. Stirring prevents lumps and keeps the sauce from scorching before the onions are added.
Swap the nutmeg
The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, onion, butter, flour, milk):
- Garlicfits about as well
- Capersfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, onion, butter, flour, milk. 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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