Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,225 recipes mention both. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓
Giblet Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the broth
Chop the cleaned giblets into convenient pieces and place them in a stew pan with 2 quarts of water.
Boil until they are half done, then strain the liquid into another stew pan with 3 quarts of veal broth.
Add the chopped marjoram, savory, thyme, basil, parsley, and pounded spices.
Include the chopped onions, shallots, and garlic, then boil the mixture for 1 hour.
Finish the soup
Chop the bones off the ends of the giblets and strain the liquid back to them.
Stew until the giblets are done, then strain the liquid again.
Thicken the liquid with flour and butter, then let it boil gently.
Strain it back to the giblets and add scalded egg and force-meat balls.
Season with Cayenne pepper and salt, then boil everything together.
Five minutes before serving, add ½ pint of boiling Sherry wine and the juice of a lemon.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
-
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together688 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
-
Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,979 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Goose giblets
- Provide the main meat and rich flavour that the soup is built around.
- Flour
- Thickens the strained liquid so it becomes a body-rich soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, rounding the flavour and smoothing the thickened liquid.
- Onions
- Build savoury sweetness and depth as they cook down into the broth.
- Sherry wine
- Adds acidity and aroma added late so its flavour stays bright.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the finished soup.
The step that matters
Thicken the liquid with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked in fat and boiled gently so it thickens smoothly without lumps or a raw starchy taste.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, marjoram, thyme, basil, parsley, allspice, clove):
- Winter savorybetter flavor fit
- Sagebetter flavor fit
- Oreganobetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, marjoram, thyme, basil, parsley, allspice, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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