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Gravy Soup

A hearty soup made from meat, bones, ham trimmings, veal bones, and vegetables, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut all the meat from the bones and chop the meat finely.

  2. Place the meat in a saucepan with the bones and drippings, then set over medium heat to brown.

  3. Peel the vegetables, stick the onion with ten whole cloves, and make a bouquet of the vegetables.

Make the stock

  1. Once the meat is browned, add 3 quarts of boiling water and let it boil gently until clear.

  2. Skim off the scum as it rises.

  3. When clear, add the whole vegetables and bouquet.

  4. Simmer gently for 2 hours or longer if possible.

  5. Strain the soup through a jelly bag without pressing the meat or vegetables.

Finish and serve

  1. The meat can be minced with potatoes and seasoned.

  2. Let the soup cool to remove the fat that rises to the top. If short on time, skim off the fat.

  3. Check seasoning, heat, and serve.

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. Carrot + celerytop 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. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Soup meat with marrow bone
Releases meaty flavour and body into the broth as it simmers.
Veal bones
Add gelatin and depth, giving the soup a fuller, richer body.
Ham trimmings
Contribute salty, smoky savour that seasons the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and flavour the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while the water comes to a boil. Proteins and impurities rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Removing them early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting, rather than cloudy and murky.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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