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A Quickly-made Gravy

A quick gravy made from small pieces of beef, onion, carrot, parsley, butter, water, salt, cayenne, mace, and Harvey's sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Quickly-made Gravy

eight persons

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut up the meat into very small pieces, slice the onion and carrot, and put them into a small saucepan with the butter.

  2. Keep stirring over a sharp fire until they have taken a little colour, then add the water and the remaining ingredients.

  3. Simmer for 1/2 hour, skim well, strain, and flavour, when it will be ready for use.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

204Calories
3 gProtein
15 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 11 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0
Arrowrootnot in our table0
Macenot 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.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + arrowroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Arrowroot + carrottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the gravy so it coats the back of a spoon rather than running thin.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and helps the onion and carrot take colour.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and depth as it browns in the pan.

The step that matters

Browning the vegetables and meat. Stirring over a sharp fire until they take colour develops deeper, roasted flavours through browning. Pale vegetables give a flat, washed-out gravy, so watch closely to avoid scorching.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, sauce, butter, walnut, arrowroot, onion, carrot):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, sauce, butter, walnut, arrowroot, onion, carrot. 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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