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Gravy in Haste

A quick beef gravy made with lean beef, onion, carrot, butter or dripping, water, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 in Haste

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the beef, onion, and carrot with the butter or beef dripping.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until browned.

  3. Add the water, parsley, thyme, peppercorns, cloves, and salt.

  4. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, skimming off any foam.

  5. Strain the gravy and serve.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty flavour that browns and dissolves into the liquid to build the gravy's savoury body.
Onion
Browns and releases sugars that add sweetness and depth to the gravy's flavour.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body as it softens and breaks down during simmering.
Butter or beef dripping
Carries the browning of the beef and vegetables and adds richness and fat to the gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the beef and vegetables. Stirring over medium heat until browned develops deep flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale vegetables and meat produce a flat, weak-tasting gravy, so the colour should be developed before water is added.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, butter, 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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