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Colouring for Soups or Gravies

A brown colouring agent for soups and gravies made from sugar, butter, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Colouring for Soups or Gravies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the colouring

  1. Put four ounces of lump sugar, a gill of water, and half an ounce of the finest butter into a small pot, and set it over a gentle fire.

  2. Stir it with a wooden spoon until a bright brown colour.

  3. Then add half a pint of water; boil, skim, and when cold, bottle and cork it close.

  4. Add to soup or gravy as much of this as will give a proper colour.

Make the thickened sauce

  1. Take two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, and two of flour and blend.

  2. Then boil with milk or water, to a light creamy consistency, seasoning with pepper and salt, if for fresh fish or vegetables.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

157Calories
0 gProtein
12 gFat
14 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lump sugar
Caramelises when heated, giving the colouring its brown colour and a slightly bitter, toasted flavour.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, and coats the flour so it blends smoothly without lumps.
Flour (in the method)
Its starch swells when boiled with liquid, thickening the mixture to a creamy consistency.

The step that matters

Stirring the sugar to bright brown. Sugar darkens quickly once it starts to caramelise, and it turns bitter and burns if heated too long. Stopping at a bright brown keeps the colour clean and the flavour pleasant.

“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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