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Gravy for Game

A gravy made from the liver and giblets of any bird, simmered in water and seasoned with salt and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Liver and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,065 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Gravy for Game

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the liver and giblets well.

  2. Place them in a pot with cold water and salt.

  3. Cook slowly until soft.

Finish the gravy

  1. Pass through a sieve into a clean pan.

  2. Add butter and some of the reserved gravy.

  3. Stir over heat until thick.

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. Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Liver and giblets
Provide the main flavour and body, breaking down into the gravy when cooked soft and sieved.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish to the gravy as it is stirred over heat.

The step that matters

Cooking the liver and giblets slowly until soft. Gentle heat softens the tissue evenly without toughening it or boiling away liquid too quickly, so the liver can be sieved smoothly into a fine gravy base.

“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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