Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Stewed Giblets
Ingredients
Directions
Clean the giblets and place them in a saucepan.
Cover with cold water and bring to a boil.
Skim off any scum, then add the onion, cloves, mace, black pepper, allspice, and salt.
Cover and simmer gently for 1.5 to 2.5 hours until tender.
Remove the pinions when done, and return them to warm when the gizzards are ready.
Thicken the sauce with flour and butter, and let it boil for 30 minutes.
Strain the sauce into a clean saucepan.
Cut the giblets into bite-sized pieces and add them to the sauce along with lemon juice and mushroom ketchup.
Serve in a soup dish with bread sippets at the bottom.
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.
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,083 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, clove, pepper, allspice, flour, butter, lemon):
- Thymefits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, pepper, allspice, flour, butter, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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