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Gravy for Turkey

A savory gravy made from turkey giblets, flour, salt, pepper, butter, and roasted turkey drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Gravy for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the giblets

  1. Boil the giblets until very tender.

  2. Chop the giblets finely.

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine the giblet cooking liquid and flour to thicken.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and a little butter.

  3. Add the chopped giblets and the drippings from the roasted turkey.

  4. Stir well and heat through.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + turkeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + turkeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Starch thickens the liquid into a smooth gravy as it heats.
Drippings from roasted turkey
Adds concentrated roasted meat flavor and fat to the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Giblets
Provide meaty flavor and tender chopped pieces that add body.

The step that matters

Combine the giblet liquid and flour. Flour must be fully dispersed before or while heating, or it forms lumps. Starch granules swell and thicken the liquid only once they are hot and evenly mixed, so stir steadily while heating.

“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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