Name: Gravy Foe Eoast Meat
Ingredients: fat from the dripping pan; simple stock gravy (made from a small piece of shin of beef or shank of leg of mutton); 1 shallot; pepper; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gravy Foe Eoast Meat

Ingredients

fat from the dripping pan
simple stock gravy (made from a small piece of shin of beef or shank of leg of mutton)
1 shallot
pepper
coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Directions

Prepare

Dish the roast meat and place it before the fire.
Remove the fat from the dripping pan.

Make the gravy

Pour the natural gravy into the dish, not over the meat.
If more gravy is needed, add the stock gravy, shallot, pepper, and salt to the natural gravy.
Baste the joint with the mixture 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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,103 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Simple stock gravy: Adds body and savoury depth to the gravy, extending the natural gravy when more is needed.
Shallot: Adds a mild aromatic onion flavour to the gravy.
Coarse sea salt: Seasons the gravy and brings out its meaty flavour.