Skip to main content
Main

To Heighten the Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

A gravy enriched with diced ham, spices, and aromatics, simmered to deepen colour and flavour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Heighten the Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dice an ounce or two of lean unboiled ham.

  2. In a small stewpan or iron saucepan, add less than an ounce of butter, a blade of mace, two or three cloves, a bay leaf, a few sprigs of savoury herbs, an eschalot or two (or about a teaspoonful of minced onion), and a little young parsley root.

Make the gravy

  1. Cook the ham and aromatics slowly until the side of the stewpan is coloured a reddish brown.

  2. Stir in a teaspoonful of flour, and simmer for three or four minutes before adding the stock.

  3. Gradually add the stock (common shin of beef stock or strong broth) after the ham has stewed slowly for about half an hour, then boil with them for twenty minutes or more.

  4. Shake the pan strongly after adding the stock to detach the browning, and repeat often while the ham is stewing.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

608Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
106 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7

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

By Eliza Acton. 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Ham (in the method)
Provides the meaty flavour and the browned residue that colours and seasons the gravy.
Butter
Fat that cooks the ham and aromatics and helps the browning begin.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks in the fat and stock.
Cloves
Adds warm aromatic flavour to the gravy base.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns.
Stock (in the method)
Forms the liquid base of the gravy and carries the flavour of the ham and aromatics.

The step that matters

Browning the ham and aromatics. If the ham and aromatics are cooked too hot or too briefly, they burn or stay pale. Slow cooking to a reddish brown builds colour and flavour through browning reactions, which the stock then lifts from the pan.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, flour. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes