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Stewed Giblets

A stew of giblets with onions, pepper, salt, herbs, cloves, ketchup, cream, thickened with flour and butter, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Giblets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place giblets in hot water and cut them into pieces.

Stew

  1. Put giblets in a stewpan with onions, pepper, coarse sea salt, sweet herbs, and cloves.

  2. Add ketchup and stew until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in cream and thicken with flour and butter.

  2. Serve with toasted bread cut into various shapes.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
The main protein, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce when combined with butter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, helping it feel smooth.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce.
Onions
Contribute savory sweetness and aroma as they soften in the stew.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour and butter. Flour needs to be cooked in fat and mixed well into the liquid to avoid lumps and a raw starchy taste. Adding it to a simmering liquid and stirring steadily lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, ketchup, cream, flour, butter, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, ketchup, cream, flour, butter, bread. 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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