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Teal, Gravy for

A savory gravy made from giblets, beef or Bovril, onion, spices, lemon rind, and water, finished with mushroom ketchup, port, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Teal, Gravy for

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Clean the giblets and place them in a saucepan with the beef or Bovril, onion, sugar browning, peppercorns, cloves, mace, parsley, lemon rind, and lukewarm water.

  2. Cover the saucepan and simmer gently until the liquid is flavorful.

  3. Strain and cool the liquid, then skim off the fat.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the gravy to the saucepan, add mushroom ketchup, port, and salt.

  2. Boil once more 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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Giblets
Provide the main meaty flavour and body for the stock.
Lean beef
Adds savoury, meaty depth to the liquid as it simmers.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aromatic flavour as it cooks down into the liquid.
Port
Adds sweetness and a rich, fruity aroma to the finished gravy.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Skim off the fat. Fat left on the strained liquid will float and make the gravy greasy and heavy on the palate. Cooling the liquid lets the fat solidify on top so it can be removed cleanly before the gravy is reboiled.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, sugar, clove, parsley, lemon, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, sugar, clove, parsley, lemon, mushroom. 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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