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To Stew Giblets

A savory stew made from giblets, onion, herbs, and gravy, thickened with flour and butter, finished with sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Stew Giblets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and cut the giblets into moderate pieces.

  2. In a stewpan, combine giblets, onion, parsley, thyme, sage, allspice, pepper, salt, and gravy.

Stew and finish

  1. Let the mixture stew until the giblets are tender.

  2. Remove the giblets and place them in cold water.

  3. Trim the giblets neatly.

  4. Strain the gravy.

  5. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.

  6. Add sherry to the gravy.

  7. Warm the giblets in the gravy.

  8. Serve hot.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Giblets
Provide the main substance and meaty texture of the stew as they become tender.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base, carrying flavor and moisture through the stew.
Flour
Thickens the gravy, giving it body when combined with butter.
Butter
Adds richness and helps flour thicken the gravy smoothly.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked with butter before or while it meets the hot liquid, otherwise it clumps and leaves a raw starchy taste. Stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the gravy thickens evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, thyme, sage, allspice, pepper, flour, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, thyme, sage, allspice, pepper, 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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