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Gravy for a Fowl

A savory gravy made from simmered chicken feet, neck, liver, gizzard, and herbs, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gravy for a Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the chicken feet and neck thoroughly, then cut them into small pieces.

Make the gravy

  1. Simmer the feet and neck with the onion, parsley, thyme, pepper, salt, liver, and gizzard in water until the liquid is reduced by half.

  2. Remove the liver, mash it, and strain the liquid back into the pot.

  3. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter, then stir in the mushroom ketchup.

  4. Simmer for a few more minutes until thickened.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken feet
Release gelatin and collagen into the broth, giving the gravy body and a rich mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving the gravy its body.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the gravy a smooth, rich texture.
Liver
Mashed back into the strained liquid, it adds depth and a savoury, earthy flavour.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury umami flavour to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked in the hot liquid for a few minutes so its starch swells fully; adding it raw or unevenly leaves lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, parsley, thyme, pepper, liver, flour, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, parsley, thyme, pepper, liver, flour, butter. 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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