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Barbecued Hare or Rabbit

A roasted rabbit or hare seasoned with butter, water, salt, and pepper, served with cresses and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 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.

  4. Put a frill of cut paper over the bone of each leg.

Roast

  1. Place the rabbit in a roasting pan with butter and water, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Cover tightly with an inverted roasting pan to keep in the steam and set in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C).

  3. After 10 minutes, baste thoroughly with butter and cover again.

  4. Repeat basting every 10 minutes for about 30 minutes.

  5. When the flesh feels almost firm under pressure, remove the top pan, baste again, and return to the oven until nicely browned, about 30 to 45 minutes total.

  6. Do not let the surface brown too much or dry out.

Serve

  1. Garnish with cresses, sprinkle with salt and pepper, pour the pan gravy over it, and serve with Maitre de Hotel Butter.

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
Provides the meat that is cooked through and browned in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the surface brown during basting.
Water
Creates steam in the covered pan, keeping the meat moist while it cooks.

The step that matters

Covering and basting while roasting. The covered pan traps steam so the meat stays moist, and regular basting keeps the surface from drying out. Removing the top pan late lets the surface brown without overcooking the flesh.

“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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