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To Stew Goose or Duck Giblets

A stew of goose or duck giblets simmered with herbs, peppercorns, onion, and catsup, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Stew Goose or Duck Giblets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the giblets

  1. Cut the pinions in two and the neck in four pieces.

  2. Score the gizzard and clean it well.

Make the stew

  1. Stew the giblets in water or broth with sweet herbs, peppercorns, and the onion.

  2. When the giblets are tender, thicken the gravy with flour and butter.

  3. Serve in a soup dish and lay sippets around it.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Clove + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks, giving it body.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and helps the flour thicken it smoothly.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness to the stock as it stews.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy. Add flour and butter only after the giblets are tender, and cook the mixture briefly. Flour added to hot liquid can clump, while thorough cooking removes the raw starch taste and lets the gravy thicken evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, flour, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, 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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