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Gravy, Beef, Clear

A clear beef gravy made by simmering beef pieces with water, onion, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Gravy, Beef, Clear

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the beef pieces over a clear fire until lightly browned, being careful not to burn them.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the beef, skim thoroughly, and simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Add the salt, fried onion, parsley, thyme, cloves, and peppercorns.

  4. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  5. Strain the gravy and set aside for use.

  6. Remove the fat from the top before reheating.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 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

Shin of beef
Provides the meat and collagen that give the gravy body and savory flavor as it simmers.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth when fried before going into the gravy.

The step that matters

Fry the beef without burning it. Light browning builds savory flavor, but scorched meat turns bitter and can taint the whole gravy. Keep the heat controlled and the pieces only lightly colored.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley, thyme. 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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