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Smothered Rabbit

Smothered rabbit is a stew of rabbit simmered with water, spices, onions, and buttered flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Smothered Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skewer the rabbit as if for roasting.

  2. Place the skewer rabbit in a stew-pan with water, pepper, salt, mace, and cloves.

Simmer the rabbit

  1. Cover the stew-pan and let it simmer slowly.

  2. When the rabbit is half done, add the butter rolled in flour.

  3. If the water reduces too much, add a little more.

Prepare the onions

  1. Boil the onions until tender.

  2. Drain the onions and chop them finely.

  3. Season the onions with salt, pepper, and butter to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Once the rabbit is done, place it on a serving dish.

  2. Add the onions to the gravy.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  4. Pour the gravy over the rabbit before serving hot.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Is the main protein; slow simmering in liquid keeps the meat tender and moist.
Butter
Rolled in flour and added to the liquid, it thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Onions
Soften during boiling and add sweetness and body to the gravy.

The step that matters

Add more water if it reduces too much. Slow simmering in a covered pot concentrates the liquid. If the water drops too low, the rabbit can dry out and the gravy can scorch, so topping up keeps the meat moist and the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, pepper, clove, butter, flour, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, pepper, clove, butter, flour, onion. 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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