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Fillets of Rabbits En Attelets

Rabbit fillets marinated in vinegar, water, vegetables, livers, and mushrooms, fried in lard, served with a tarragon vinegar and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fillets of Rabbits En Attelets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut each rabbit fillet into two long slices.

  2. Marinate the slices in a mixture of vinegar, water, carrot, onion, parsley, peppercorns, salt, garlic, bay leaf, chicken livers, and mushrooms for about 8 hours.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat lard in a pan until very hot and fry the marinated fillets until golden brown.

  2. Place the fried fillets on a paper towel to drain excess fat.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Arrange the fillets neatly on a serving dish, garnishing with the livers and mushrooms.

  2. In a small saucepan, reduce tarragon vinegar and mix in butter sauce until hot.

  3. Stir in an additional tablespoon of tarragon vinegar and pour it carefully between the fillets.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit fillets
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and golden when fried after marinating.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade that helps tenderize the meat and adds sharp flavor.
Tarragon vinegar
Gives the sauce its characteristic aromatic, sharp flavor when reduced.
Butter
Adds richness and body to the sauce, giving it a smooth texture.
Chicken livers
Add savory depth and a rich, meaty flavor to the marinade and garnish.

The step that matters

Frying the marinated fillets. Lard must be very hot before the fillets go in; otherwise the meat steams in its own moisture and fails to brown well. Patting the fillets dry helps the surface sear.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, vinegar, carrot, onion, parsley, garlic, chicken):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, vinegar, carrot, onion, parsley, garlic, chicken. 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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