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Curried Rabbit

A rabbit stew flavored with curry powder, mushroom powder, and lemon, served over boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Curried Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean, skin, and wash the rabbit thoroughly, then cut it into joints.

Make the curry

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the sliced onions; cook until they are golden brown.

  2. Pour in the boiling stock.

  3. Mix the curry powder and flour with a little water, then add to the stock along with the mushroom powder.

  4. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Squeeze in the lemon juice and serve with boiled rice around the rabbit.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Rabbit
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender during slow, gentle simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the onions brown in the pan.
Onions
Browning builds sweetness and savoury depth into the sauce.
Curry powder
Provides the main aroma and spiced flavour of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a sauce that clings to the rabbit.
Mushroom powder
Adds savoury, umami depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Mixing the curry powder and flour with water before adding. Dry flour clumps when it hits hot liquid. A smooth paste disperses the starch so the sauce thickens evenly. Gentle simmering keeps the rabbit tender rather than tough.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion, flour, mushroom, rice. 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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