Name: Gravy, Piquant, for Hash
Ingredients: 2 shallots, minced very finely; ¼ clove of garlic, minced very finely; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 dessertspoon (2 teaspoons) chopped parsley; 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice; 1 cup good stock; ½ slice of bread, toasted until firm and hard; Pickled gherkins for garnish

Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Gravy, Piquant, for Hash

Ingredients

2 shallots, minced very finely
¼ clove of garlic, minced very finely
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 dessertspoon (2 teaspoons) chopped parsley
2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
1 cup good stock
½ slice of bread, toasted until firm and hard
Pickled gherkins for garnish

Directions

Make the gravy

In a stewpan, melt the butter over low heat.
Add the minced shallots and garlic, frying gently until lightly browned, stirring to prevent burning.
Mix the flour and chopped parsley into the gravy until smooth.
Stir in the vinegar or lemon juice, stock, and the toasted bread.

Serve

Garnish the dish with pickled gherkins before serving.

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.

Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,677 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,081 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Provides fat for frying the shallots and garlic and carries their flavour into the gravy.
Flour: Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy as it cooks with the butter.
Shallots: Add a mild, sweet onion flavour that deepens as they brown.
Vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that sharpens the gravy and balances the rich butter and stock.
Stock: Forms the liquid base of the gravy and supplies savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the shallots and garlic. Cook them gently over low heat and stir often. High heat or neglect scorches the minced pieces, which turns them bitter and can taint the whole gravy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, garlic, butter, flour, parsley, vinegar, bread):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Thymefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, garlic, butter, flour, parsley, vinegar, bread. 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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White Bread80 recipes

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Gravy, Piquant, for Hash