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Rabbit, Fricasser of

A rabbit stew with butter, flour, stock, milk, and vegetables, finished with a sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rabbit, Fricasser of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and braise the rabbit

  1. Cut the rabbit into neat joints and rinse in warm water.

  2. Place the rabbit in a stewpan and add enough white stock to cover it.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add the prepared vegetables, peppercorns, and a little salt.

  4. Cover closely and cook gently for about 1½ hours, or until the rabbit is tender, adding milk as needed to replace the stock.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a separate pan.

  2. Add the flour and stir gently without browning, then set aside.

  3. Once the rabbit is cooked, remove it and keep it warm.

  4. Strain the stock and add ½ pint to the flour and butter mixture, stirring until boiling.

  5. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  6. Pass the vegetables through a fine sieve and stir the purée into the sauce.

  7. Season to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the rabbit to the sauce.

  2. Heat thoroughly.

  3. 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle simmering in liquid.
Butter
Melts with the flour to form a roux and adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells when mixed with butter and hot stock.
White stock
Forms the cooking liquid, which is strained and becomes the body of the sauce.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the sauce and replaces stock lost during cooking.
Onions
Contribute savoury sweetness and body to the stock that flavours the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the stock to the flour and butter. Stir the stock in steadily while the roux is hot. Dispersing the flour evenly lets its starch swell smoothly, so the sauce thickens without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, flour, milk, carrot, turnip, celery):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, flour, milk, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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