Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Gravy Making
Ingredients
Directions
Collect drippings from roasted meat.
Add water to the drippings to make a gravy base.
Season with coarse sea salt and pepper to taste.
If desired, mix flour with a little water to thicken the gravy.
Heat the gravy until it is very hot before serving.
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.
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,529 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat drippings
- Provide the concentrated meat flavour and fat that form the base of the gravy.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving the gravy body.
The step that matters
Thickening with flour. Flour must be mixed smoothly with a little water before it goes into the hot gravy, otherwise it clumps and does not thicken evenly. Starch needs heat to swell, so the gravy must be brought fully hot to reach its final body.
“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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