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Barbecued Hare or Rabbit

Barbecued hare or rabbit is roasted with butter, water, salt, pepper, and served with cresses and pan gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rabbit and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,448 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Barbecued Hare or Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop off the feet of the rabbit and leave the head on, cleaning it nicely.

  2. Empty the rabbit and wipe the inside with a wet cloth, then dry immediately.

  3. Skewer the fore- and hind-legs forward as if lying down.

Roast

  1. Place the rabbit in a roasting pan with butter and boiling water.

  2. Add salt and pepper, then cover tightly with an inverted roasting pan.

  3. Set in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  4. Baste thoroughly with butter every 10 minutes for about 30 minutes.

  5. If the flesh feels almost firm, remove the top pan, baste again, and return to the oven until browned.

  6. Total cooking time is 30 to 45 minutes, depending on size.

Serve

  1. Garnish with cresses, sprinkle with salt and pepper, pour pan gravy over, and serve.

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. Rabbit + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Rabbit + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-pentylpyridine (fat).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit or hare
Provides the meat that is roasted until tender and browned.
Butter
Bastes the surface, adding richness and helping it brown in the oven.
Boiling water
Creates steam under the covered pan and mixes with juices to form the gravy.

The step that matters

Covering and basting. The inverted top pan traps steam so the meat cooks through gently, and basting with butter every 10 minutes keeps the surface moist. Removing the cover late lets the surface brown.

“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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