Skip to main content
Main

Gravy for Turkey

A gravy made from turkey heart, gizzard, drippings, flour, water, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Turkey and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,636 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Gravy for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the heart and gizzard until very tender, then chop finely.

  2. In a saucepan, pour the desired amount of turkey drippings.

Make the gravy

  1. Mix 1 tablespoon of flour with cold water to form a paste.

  2. Slowly pour the flour mixture into the hot drippings while stirring constantly.

  3. Cook for three minutes, then season with salt and pepper.

  4. Add the chopped heart and gizzard to the gravy.

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. Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,636 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Turkey + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together963 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Drippings from roasted turkey
Provide the main savory flavor and fat base of the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the drippings as its starch swells with heat, giving the gravy body.
Heart and gizzard of turkey
Adds chopped meat pieces and extra savory, poultry flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Pouring the flour paste into the hot drippings. Adding the flour mixture slowly while stirring constantly keeps it dispersed, so the gravy thickens smoothly without lumps.

“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.

You might also like

Turkey SoupTurkey Soup71 recipesTurkey StuffingTurkey Stuffing26 recipesTurkey DressingTurkey Dressing24 recipesTurkey PattiesTurkey Patties12 recipes