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Rich Gravy

A savory gravy made from mutton bones, vegetables, and seasonings, finished with port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rich Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Bone the loin of mutton and trim off excess fat.

  2. Flatten the mutton with a rolling pin to tenderize it.

  3. Make stuffing by mixing suet, almond paste, bread crumbs, parsley, herbs, pepper, salt, cayenne, nutmeg, lemon peel, and eggs.

  4. Spread the stuffing over the inner side of the mutton, roll it up, and skewer it.

Roast and make the gravy

  1. Roast the mutton at a distance from the fire for 1.5 hours, basting continually.

  2. In a saucepan, combine bones, black onion, shallot, garlic, carrot, celery, and water; stew for 3 hours.

  3. Strain the broth and add baked flour, mushroom ketchup, soy sauce, and salt; boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Stir in the port wine and pour the gravy over the mutton before serving 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape when rolled.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body.
Mutton suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing and meat moist and rich.
Baked flour
Thickens the strained broth into a gravy.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Roasting the rolled mutton with continual basting. Basting keeps the surface moist and helps the outside brown evenly while the stuffed centre cooks through. Roasting at a distance from the fire lets the heat penetrate gently, so the meat cooks through without scorching on the outside.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, bread, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, egg):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, egg. 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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