Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Eoast Haees or Rabbits
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Thoroughly skin and clean the hare or rabbit.
Mix the chopped livers, fat pork, bread crumbs, mushrooms (if using), pepper, salt, and onion juice.
Stuff the hare or rabbit with the mixture and sew it up.
Anoint the stuffed hare or rabbit with salad oil and lemon juice, and marinate for 1 hour.
Roast
Place the hare or rabbit in a roaster and pour the stock or butter and water underneath.
Cover and cook for 1 hour.
Remove the cover, baste with butter, and brown the hare or rabbit.
Keep the hare or rabbit hot while you thicken the gravy with browned flour.
Finish and serve
Boil the gravy, then add catsup and claret.
Pour some gravy over the hare or rabbit and serve the rest in a separate dish.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together832 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Liver + porktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
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Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hare or rabbit
- Is the main body of the dish, cooked whole and served as the centerpiece.
- Livers
- Add rich, savory flavor and moisture to the stuffing mixture.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb juices and help bind the stuffing so it stays moist.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty color and flavor.
- Claret
- Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the finished gravy.
The step that matters
Covered cooking before browning. Cooking covered in stock keeps the lean meat moist and tender. Browning with butter only at the end gives color without drying the hare or rabbit out.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, liver, pork, bread, mushroom, pepper, onion):
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits about as well
- Limefits about as well
- Grapefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, liver, pork, bread, mushroom, pepper, 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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