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Beef Gravy

A thick gravy made by browning beef with bacon, vegetables, herbs, then simmering in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Beef Gravy

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 ↓

Beef Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into thin slices and score them.

  2. Line a stew-pan with bacon or ham and place the beef on top.

Make the gravy

  1. Add bits of butter, carrot, onions, eschalot, celery, and sweet herbs.

  2. Brown the mixture over heat, shaking the pan occasionally.

  3. Once juices are drawn, add boiling water to cover the meat.

  4. Scum the surface.

  5. Cover the pan and simmer for three hours.

  6. Strain the gravy into a vessel and cool it.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beef
Provides the meat and rich, savoury flavour that the gravy is built on.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften and brown in the pan.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavour that underpins the stock.
Carrot
Contributes gentle sweetness and body to the simmered liquid.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the vegetables brown.

The step that matters

Brown the mixture over heat, shaking the pan occasionally.. Browning caramelises the meat and vegetable sugars through the Maillard reaction, creating the deep colour and roasted flavour of the finished gravy. Shaking prevents sticking and scorching, which would make the gravy bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, carrot, celery, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, carrot, celery, butter, pepper. 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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