Skip to main content
Main

Giblet Soup

A hearty soup made from fowl feet, necks, pinions, giblets, veal, and ham, flavored with butter, flour, salt, and sweet herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Giblet Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Combine the feet, neck, pinions, giblets, veal, and ham in a large pot.

  2. Pour in 3 quarts of cold water and boil gently until the meat is very soft.

  3. Strain the liquid and let it cool; remove the fat.

  4. Cut the giblets and meat into half‑inch pieces.

Finish the soup

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and butter with some of the soup to thin it.

  2. Add the butter mixture, meat, and sweet herbs to the soup.

  3. Season with salt to taste and boil for 30 minutes 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,475 recipes

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

  4. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together5,886 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Veal
Breaks down during long simmering to give the broth body and savory meaty flavor.
Fowl feet and necks
Release gelatin and collagen into the broth, giving it body and a richer mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the soup when mixed with butter and liquid, giving it a smoother, heavier texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping smooth the thickened soup.
Lean ham
Adds salty, savory depth to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Thinning the flour and butter before adding it. If flour and butter are added directly to hot soup they can clump. Mixing them first with some warm soup lets the starch disperse evenly so the soup thickens smoothly.

“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 soup recipes

Chicken 12Duck 7Clear 4Irish 3Lamb 3Turkey 3 See all 146 →

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes