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Of Stewing

A stew of fowl or turkey simmered in gravy with celery, mace, butter, flour, red wine, ketchup, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Of Stewing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, combine the gravy and chopped, washed celery.

  2. Add the mace and let it stew softly until the sauce thickens.

  3. Incorporate the butter rolled in flour, red wine, ketchup, pepper, and salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the fowl or turkey in a dish and pour the sauce over it.

  2. If the fowl or turkey is ready before the sauce, remove it and keep warm until the sauce is boiled enough.

  3. Return the fowl or turkey to the pot, boil for 1-2 minutes, then serve.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + turkeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

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

  4. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Celery + turkeytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Butter and flour 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

Gravy
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the sauce.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the sauce and butter adds richness and smoothness.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and tang that rounds out the sauce.
Celery
Contributes a vegetal, aromatic flavour as it stews into the sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the bird warm while the sauce finishes. Turkey or fowl that sits too long overcooks and dries out, while sauce that is not fully boiled stays thin and raw-tasting. Holding the meat warm separately and returning it only for a brief final boil keeps both moist and properly seasoned.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, flour, red wine, ketchup, pepper, turkey):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, flour, red wine, ketchup, pepper, turkey. 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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