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Gravy for Hashes

A savory gravy made from bones, herbs, and onions, thickened with butter and flour, served with hash.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Gravy for Hashes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Break the bones into small pieces and place them in a saucepan with cold water.

  2. Add celery seed (or celery sticks), peppercorns, allspice, parsley, marjoram, thyme, and water.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, then strain the mixture.

Make the gravy

  1. In a separate pan, fry the sliced onion in butter until lightly browned.

  2. Mix in the flour smoothly, then gradually add the strained gravy.

  3. Boil for 20 minutes.

  4. Strain again.

  5. Add salt and any optional flavorings.

  6. Heat the gravy before serving with the meat, ensuring it does not boil.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones and trimmings
Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the water to give the gravy body.
Flour
Thickens the gravy by swelling in the hot liquid to give it body.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and helps it brown lightly before the flour is added.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth as it browns in butter.

The step that matters

Heat the gravy without boiling it. Once the flour has thickened the gravy, boiling can make it thin or break its smooth texture, so it should be kept just hot until serving.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, allspice, parsley, marjoram, thyme, butter, flour):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, allspice, parsley, marjoram, thyme, butter, flour. 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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