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Roast Rabbit

A rabbit stuffed with breadcrumbs, onion, sage, pepper, salt, butter, and wrapped in salt pork, roasted and served with currant jelly or cranberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Rabbit

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Stuff and dress the rabbit

  1. Fill the dressed rabbit with a mixture of bread crumbs, onion, sage, pepper, salt, and butter.

  2. Tie a piece of salt pork over the rabbit.

  3. Place the rabbit in a dripping pan with a little water.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast in the oven, basting often.

  2. Serve with currant jelly or cranberry sauce.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Rabbit + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together832 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Is the main protein that is roasted whole and becomes tender and juicy in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Soak up juices inside the cavity, keeping the stuffing moist and giving it body.
Salt pork
Lays fat over the lean rabbit, adding moisture and savory flavor as it renders.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavor to the stuffing as it softens and sweetens in the heat.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the stuffing and promotes gentle browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Basting often during roasting. Lean rabbit meat dries out easily in dry oven heat. Frequent basting with the pan juices and fat keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, bread, onion, sage, pepper, butter, pork):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, bread, onion, sage, pepper, butter, pork. 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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