Skip to main content
Starter

Turkey Giblets a LA Bourgeoise

A savory stew of turkey giblets simmered with butter, herbs, mushrooms, stock, and fried turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Turkey Giblets a LA Bourgeoise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the turkey giblets.

  2. Place the scalded giblets in a stewpan.

Make the stew

  1. Add butter, parsley, scallions, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, basil, and mushrooms.

  2. Moisten with stock and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Heat until hot, then thicken with flour.

  4. When almost done, add fried turnips.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turkey giblets
Provide the main protein and rich, meaty flavor for the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and carries aroma from the herbs and aromatics.
Mushrooms
Add earthy savoriness and moisture as they release juices while cooking.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, lightly body-rich sauce.
Turnips
Add sweetness and a tender texture once fried in butter.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour after heating. Flour must be heated in the hot liquid to cook out its raw starch taste and thicken evenly; adding it to cold liquid or leaving it uncooked can cause lumps and a pasty flavor.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, liver, butter, parsley, clove, thyme, basil):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, liver, butter, parsley, clove, thyme, basil. 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.

You might also like

Deviled OystersDeviled Oysters25 recipes