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Giblet Soup

A hearty soup made from poultry giblets, chicken feet, beef shin, spices, herbs, salt, soy sauce, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Giblet Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the giblets

  1. Pick and clean the heads, wings, and gizzards of the giblets.

  2. Chop the liver into 1-inch pieces after removing the gall.

  3. Scald and clean the chicken feet. Chop the bills off close to the heads of the chicken feet. Cut the heads of the chicken feet in half.

  4. Cut the gizzards into 4–8 pieces based on their size. Cut the wings and necks into 4 pieces each.

  5. Wash all the giblets thoroughly in 2–3 changes of water.

Simmer and serve

  1. In a large pot, combine the giblets, chicken feet, shin of beef, cloves, mace, black peppercorns, sweet herbs, and coarse sea salt. Add enough water to cover the ingredients and simmer for 4 hours.

  2. Skim off any fat, strain the soup, and serve hot in a tureen. Add soy sauce and cayenne pepper to taste before serving.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Lemon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Giblets
Provide the main poultry flavor and body of the broth as they simmer.
Chicken's feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the soup a richer body.
Shin of beef
Adds meaty depth and savory flavor to the broth during the long simmer.
Black peppercorns
Contribute a sharp, aromatic warmth that infuses the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer for 4 hours after covering with water. Long, gentle simmering slowly extracts gelatin and flavor from bones, feet and meat. Boiling hard instead can cloud the broth and make it greasy, so keep it at a bare simmer and skim fat as it forms.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, beef, clove, lemon, thyme, winter savory, marjoram):

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, beef, clove, lemon, thyme, winter savory, marjoram. 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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