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Cullis, or a Thick Gravy

A thick gravy made with ham, veal, vegetables, herbs, and spices, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cullis, or a Thick Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine ham, veal, celery, carrots, turnips, onions, leeks, herbs, allspice, black pepper, mace, lemon peel, and bay leaves with 4 cups of water in a pan.

  2. Cook over medium heat until light brown, being careful not to burn it.

Make the gravy

  1. Add enough beef stock to cover the mixture and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off any fat and thicken with a mixture of flour and butter.

  3. Let it simmer gently for 45 minutes, seasoning with cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and salt to taste.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain through a fine sieve or cloth before serving.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich gravy when cooked with the butter.
Butter
Combines with the flour to form a roux that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Beef stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor and becomes the body of the gravy.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the stock as it simmers.
Veal
Contributes gelatin and meaty flavor that give the gravy body and richness.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth when browned with the meats.

The step that matters

Cook the vegetables and meats until light brown. Browning builds deep, roasted flavor through the Maillard reaction, but scorching adds bitter, burnt notes that carry into the gravy, so heat must stay moderate and the pan must be watched closely.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, celery, carrot, turnip, onion, leek. 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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