Skip to main content
Main

Gravy Made From Giblets

A savory gravy made by simmering giblets, thickened with flour and butter, finished with milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Gravy Made From Giblets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the giblets

  1. Cook giblets in water until tender.

  2. Remove giblets from heat.

  3. Chop giblets finely.

Make the gravy

  1. In a frying pan, combine chopped giblets with the cooking water.

  2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with a little water.

  3. Add salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of butter.

  4. Cook until thickened.

  5. Thin with sweet, fresh milk while stirring continuously.

  6. Once it bubbles, remove from heat.

Serve

  1. Pour into a gravy tureen.

  2. Cover closely.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Giblets
Provide the main meaty flavour and body of the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the gravy body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the gravy.
Milk
Thins the thickened base and adds creaminess and mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Thin with milk while stirring continuously. Adding cold milk to a hot flour-thickened base can cause lumps or uneven texture. Stirring constantly disperses the milk evenly so the gravy stays smooth as it heats.

“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.

More giblet gravy recipes

Turkey 3 See all 12 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes