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Gravy for Turkey

A savory gravy made from turkey fat, flour, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gravy for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pour off some fat from the pan, leaving about 4 tablespoons.

  2. Add 3 tablespoons of flour to the fat and brown it.

  3. Gradually add 2 cups of hot stock or boiling water, stirring continuously.

  4. Cook for 5 minutes.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Stir in the chopped cooked gizzard and finely chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turkey + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together532 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the fat and stock into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
Fat from roasted turkey
Carries the flour's browning and adds rich roasted flavour.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the hot liquid gradually. Pouring liquid in slowly while stirring lets the starch disperse evenly, preventing lumps as the flour thickens the gravy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, flour, pepper):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, flour, pepper. 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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