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 ↓
Larded Rabbit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rabbit
Cut off the rabbit's head and divide the body into joints.
Lard the rabbit with slips of fat pork.
Fry in a hot frying pan until half done.
Stew and finish
In a saucepan, combine the rabbit, gravy, herbs, onion, and pepper.
Stew, covered, for 30 minutes or until tender.
Remove the rabbit and place in a hot covered dish.
Strain the gravy, add butter, lemon juice, and thicken with flour.
Boil the gravy and pour over the meat.
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 + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pork + vealtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,930 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, covered stewing.
- Fat pork
- Lardons add moisture and richness as they melt into the lean rabbit meat.
- Flour
- Thickens the strained gravy into a smooth sauce that clings to the meat.
- Butter
- Adds fat and a rounded richness to the finished gravy.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances its fat.
The step that matters
Stew, covered, until tender. Rabbit is lean and dries out easily, so gentle covered stewing with liquid is needed to break down connective tissue and keep the meat 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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