Skip to main content
Main

Cullis, or Rich Gravy

A thick, seasoned gravy made from mutton or beef bones, simmered with onion, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓

Cullis, or Rich Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Break the bones into small pieces and place them in a large saucepan with 5 pints of water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 5 hours, ensuring it simmers slowly.

  3. Strain the mixture and skim off the fat.

  4. If possible, let it sit overnight to remove more fat.

Flavour and thicken

  1. Return the liquid to the saucepan and add the onion, bay leaf, celery seed or celery, carrot, herbs, salt, white pepper, and mace.

  2. Simmer gently for 2 hours, then strain again.

  3. Stir in the Bovril and browning.

  4. Thicken with brown thickening or flour mixed with cold water, adding gradually.

  5. Let it simmer for an additional 20 minutes, adjusting thickness with water if necessary.

  6. Strain from the vegetables before storing.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release gelatin and meaty flavour into the liquid during long simmering, giving body to the gravy.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens and flavours the stock.
Carrot
Contributes natural sweetness and background flavour to the stock.
Brown thickening
Starch swells when heated, thickening the liquid into a gravy consistency.

The step that matters

Adding the thickener gradually. Starch granules swell and clump if dumped in at once. Adding it slowly while the liquid is hot and stirred keeps it smooth, and the gravy only thickens fully once simmered.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ham, onion, clove, celery, carrot, mace):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, onion, clove, celery, carrot, mace. 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.

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipes