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A Rich English Brown Gravy

A gravy made from lean ham, beef, eschalots, herbs, and spices, simmered with water or broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

A Rich English Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the base

  1. Brown the lean ham lightly and carefully, then lift it and place it in the pan for the gravy.

  2. Fry the beef lightly, then place it over the ham.

  3. Brown gently and add eschalots or onion.

Simmer the gravy

  1. Pour a quart of boiling water or broth over the ingredients.

  2. Bring the mixture slowly to a boil.

  3. Clear off the scum.

  4. Add a saltspoonful of salt, four cloves, a blade of mace, twenty corns of pepper, a bunch of savoury herbs, a carrot, and a few slices of celery.

  5. Fry the carrot and celery if desired.

  6. Boil the gravy very softly until reduced to just over a pint.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the gravy and set it aside until the fat can be removed.

  2. Reheat the gravy, add more salt if needed, and a little mushroom catsup, cayenne-vinegar, or other flavouring.

  3. Add a dozen small pickled mushrooms or two or three morels, previously washed and soaked.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

264Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ham + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Ham + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Browned first to give the gravy a savoury, meaty base flavour.
Eschalots
Browned to add a mild sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Morels
Add an earthy, concentrated mushroom flavour to the finished gravy.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens and balances the rich meat flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy very softly until reduced. A hard boil churns fat and scum into the liquid, leaving the gravy cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear and lets flavour concentrate slowly, and the scum should be skimmed off before reducing.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, vinegar. 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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