Name: Turkey with Giblet Gravy
Ingredients: Turkey; Giblets; Water; Flour; Cranberry sauce; Fried oysters

Why it works: Turkey and cranberry work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Turkey with Giblet Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the giblets in a saucepan and cover with water. Cook for 15 minutes before serving the turkey.
Remove the giblets and chop them in a wooden bowl.
Add the chopped giblets back to the cooking water.
After removing the turkey from the oven, place the dripping pan on the stove.
Add the giblet mixture to the turkey drippings.
Mix a little scorched flour with water and stir it into the gravy. Boil until thickened.
Serve the gravy in a gravy boat alongside the turkey.
Serve the turkey with cold, jellied cranberry sauce and arrange fried oysters around it on the platter.

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.

Turkey + cranberrytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Sauce + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + cranberrytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together268 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Turkey + oystertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together473 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,078 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).