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Giblet Soup

A savory soup made from goose giblets simmered in stock with onion, herbs, and mushroom ketchup, finished with a roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 12,525 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Giblet Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the giblets and stock

  1. Wash the giblets well, cut them into dice, and fry in 1 oz. of butter until browned.

  2. Add the stock, onion, and herbs.

  3. Simmer gently for about 1.5 hours until the giblets are tender.

  4. Remove the giblets and strain the stock.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the remaining 1 oz. of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook until browned.

  3. Add the strained stock, pepper, salt, and mushroom ketchup.

  4. Cook for 5 minutes after boiling, then skim well.

  5. Add the giblets back in and bring to a boil again.

  6. Serve with toasted bread.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned 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

Goose giblets
Provide the main meat and rich, savoury flavour once browned and simmered until tender.
Butter
Browns the giblets and forms the fat base for the flour.
Rice flour
Thickens the stock when cooked in butter to form a roux.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the dish.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury depth to the broth.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the soup.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in butter until browned. Flour must cook long enough to lose its raw taste and to thicken properly. It browns quickly, so it can scorch if left unattended and turn bitter.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, rice, flour, mushroom, ketchup, pepper. 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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