Name: Sage and Onion Gravy
Ingredients: sage and onion stuffing; good stock; 1 tablespoon Harvey's Sauce

Why it works: Sage and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,628 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sage and Onion Gravy

Ingredients

sage and onion stuffing
good stock
1 tablespoon Harvey's Sauce

Directions

Prepare more sage and onion stuffing than needed and rub a portion through a sieve.
Mix the pulp with enough good stock to make the desired quantity of gravy. Add 1 tablespoon of Harvey's Sauce.
Bring the mixture to a boil 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.

Sage + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,474 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sage + saucetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together444 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sage and onion stuffing: Its sieved pulp thickens the gravy and adds sage and onion flavour.
Good stock: Forms the liquid base of the gravy and carries its flavour.
Harvey's sauce: Adds a savoury, tangy depth to the gravy.