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Gravy Made Without Meat for Fowls

A gravy made from fowl necks, feet, livers, gizzards, bread, onion, herbs, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Gravy Made Without Meat for Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Thoroughly wash the feet of the fowls and cut them and the neck into small pieces.

  2. Put these into a saucepan with the bread, onion, herbs, seasoning, livers, and gizzards.

Simmer and finish

  1. Pour the water over them and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the liver, pound it, and strain the liquid into it.

  3. Add a thickening of butter and flour and the mushroom ketchup; boil it up and serve.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Necks of fowls
Release collagen and body into the liquid, giving the gravy depth as they simmer.
Feet of fowls
Add gelatin when simmered, giving the gravy a richer, silkier body.
Livers of fowls
Pounded and strained into the gravy, they thicken it and add a deep, rich flavour.
Thickening of butter and flour
Roux that thickens the liquid and adds richness and a smooth texture.
1 slice of toasted bread
Adds body and helps lightly thicken the simmered liquid.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury, umami depth to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Boil it up after adding the thickening. The butter and flour roux only thickens fully when it comes to a boil, as the starch swells and gelatinises. Stopping short leaves the gravy thin and floury-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, bread, pepper, butter, flour, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, bread, pepper, butter, flour, mushroom, ketchup. 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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