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Stewed Rabbit, Larded

A rabbit stewed with bacon, broth, herbs, and sherry, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stewed Rabbit, Larded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rabbit

  1. Wash the rabbit well and cut it into quarters.

  2. Lard the rabbit pieces with strips of bacon.

  3. Fry the larded rabbit pieces.

Stew

  1. Place the rabbit in a stewpan with the broth, herbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer gently until the rabbit is tender.

  3. Strain the gravy.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour.

  2. Add the sherry to the gravy.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  4. Pour the gravy over the rabbit.

  5. Serve garnished with lemon slices.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rabbit + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Rabbit + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the lean rabbit as it is larded and fried.
Broth or stock
Forms the cooking liquid that gives the gravy its body and savory flavor.
Butter and flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the rabbit rather than running off.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy, balancing its richness.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the rabbit is tender. Boiling rather than simmering toughens muscle proteins and can make the meat dry and stringy. A gentle, steady heat lets collagen break down slowly, leaving the rabbit tender and moist.

“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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