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Fricasseed Rabbits

A stew of rabbit pieces cooked with cayenne pepper, salt, parsley, water or broth, butter, flour, cream, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Fricasseed Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Season the rabbit pieces with Cayenne pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.

  2. Place them in a stewpan and add warm water or veal broth.

  3. Stew over low heat until the rabbits are tender.

  4. When halfway done, add butter rolled in flour.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, stir in thick cream and grated nutmeg, ensuring it does not boil.

  2. Serve the rabbit pieces on a hot dish and pour the gravy over them.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbits
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing over low heat.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy, while butter adds richness and body.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the cream and nutmeg without boiling. Cream is rich in fat and proteins that can curdle or separate when boiled, leaving the gravy grainy. Keeping it just below a boil with gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

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