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Gravy Made Without Meat

A thickened gravy made from flour, butter, water, onion, pepper, salt, mushroom ketchup, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Gravy Made Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the roux

  1. Knead flour into the butter until well combined.

  2. Fry the mixture in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it turns a nice brown color.

Simmer and finish

  1. Pour in boiling water and add minced onion, whole pepper, and salt.

  2. Transfer to a small saucepan, cover, and simmer for a short time.

  3. Strain the mixture and mix in mushroom ketchup and wine.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starches swell in the hot liquid.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness and flavor when browned.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the gravy.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the flour and butter until brown. Stirring constantly keeps the flour from scorching, while cooking it until nutty brown develops flavor and color. Burnt flour turns bitter, and undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and weakens thickening.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, butter, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, butter, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, 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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