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Gravy for Turkey

A savory gravy made by simmering turkey with aromatics, flour, wine, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Gravy for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Weigh the turkey and season with salt.

  2. For a 9-pound turkey, cook for 2.5 hours, adding 10 minutes for each additional pound.

  3. Half an hour before serving, remove the paper, dredge the turkey with baked flour, and baste with melted butter until done.

Make the gravy

  1. In a pot, rub the bottom with garlic, then add butter, onion, carrot, celery, and the meats.

  2. Let the mixture sit by the fire for an hour to brown and extract the gravy.

  3. Add warm water and simmer gently for 3.5 hours, skimming frequently.

  4. Mix the flour with white wine and stir into the gravy.

  5. Boil rapidly and skim for 20 minutes.

  6. Strain the gravy and place the turkey on a hot dish.

Serve

  1. Remove skewers and pour some gravy into the dish, not over the turkey.

  2. Serve the remaining gravy in a tureen, garnished with fried sausages.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Baked flour
Thickens the gravy and coats the turkey so it browns when basted.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich meat flavours.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the turkey brown when basted.
Onion, carrot, and celery
Build sweetness and savoury depth as they slowly cook into the stock.
Beef, veal, and ham
Provide meaty flavour and body to the gravy as they simmer.

The step that matters

Boil rapidly and skim for 20 minutes. Rapid boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates flavour, while skimming removes fat and impurities that would otherwise leave the gravy greasy or cloudy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, white wine, butter, onion, carrot, beef, veal):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, white wine, butter, onion, carrot, beef, veal. 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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