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Onions in Gravy

Onions simmered in salted water, then combined with browned flour, butter, claret, and gravy to make a sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓

Onions in Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the onions in salted water until tender.

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the flour until browned.

  2. Add the claret and gravy to the mixture, stirring well.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + red winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Onions
Form the main body of the dish and become soft and sweet as they cook.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the melted butter.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness and flavor to the base.
Claret (red wine)
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the gravy.
Gravy
Provides the liquid body and savory flavor of the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the butter. Cooking the flour in melted butter until browned builds a nutty, toasted flavor and helps prevent lumps when liquid is added. Stirring constantly keeps it from scorching.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, red wine. 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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