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Gravy Soup

A hearty soup made with beef shin, veal knuckle, ham, vegetables, herbs, and simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 Soup

14 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Brown and simmer

  1. Slightly brown the meat and ham in the butter, but do not let them burn.

  2. Pour the water into the pan.

  3. As the scum rises, skim it off; when no more appears, add all the other ingredients.

  4. Let the soup simmer slowly by the fire for 6 hours without stirring it from the bottom.

Settle and clarify

  1. Take it off the fire and let it settle.

  2. Skim off all the fat you can, and pass the soup through a sieve or cloth.

  3. When perfectly cold, remove all the fat and leave the sediment untouched.

Make the glaze

  1. Cut up the ham and veal into small square pieces, put these in a stewpan, moistening them with a small quantity of water.

  2. Place them over the fire to draw down.

  3. When the bottom of the stewpan becomes covered with a white glaze, fill up with water in the above proportion; add the remaining ingredients, stew very slowly for 3 or 4 hours, and do not forget to skim well the moment it boils.

Finish

  1. Put it by, and when cold take off all the fat.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

414Calories
31 gProtein
15 gFat
41 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 12 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Ham
Adds salty, savoury meat flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Browning and long simmering build sweet, savoury aroma in the stock.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during slow cooking, adding gentle sweetness.
Celery
Contributes fresh, vegetal aroma that rounds out the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly without stirring from the bottom. Vigorous boiling or stirring lifts sediment and fat into the liquid, making the soup cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear, and skimming removes the scum as it rises.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, celery, onion, carrot, turnip, clove, sugar):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, celery, onion, carrot, turnip, clove, sugar. 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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