Why it works: Liver and turkey work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 190 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Gravy for Turkey
Ingredients
Directions
Make the giblet stock
In a stew-pan, combine the neck, heart, liver, gizzard, and water; boil until tender.
Chop the heart and gizzard, mash the liver, and discard the neck.
Return the chopped meat to the cooking liquid.
Finish the gravy
Once the turkey is done, add this mixture to the gravy drippings after skimming off the fat.
Boil for 3 minutes and thicken with flour.
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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Liver + turkeytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together190 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Turkey + flourtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together963 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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Liver + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,418 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 drippings and liquid into a smooth, cohesive gravy as it heats.
- Gravy drippings from the roasted turkey
- Supply the roasted flavour and body that the gravy is built on.
- Neck, heart, liver, and gizzard of the turkey
- Simmered to make a richly flavoured stock that adds depth to the gravy.
The step that matters
Thickening with flour. Flour must be cooked long enough to lose its raw starchy taste and to swell fully; adding it to liquid without whisking can form lumps, and under-boiling leaves the gravy thin and floury.
“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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