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Drawn or Made Gravy

A thickened gravy made by simmering beef, veal, or poultry trimmings with butter and water, then straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Drawn or Made Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces and beat it with a mallet to release juices.

  2. Season the meat with pepper and coarse sea salt, then place it in a stew pan with butter.

Brown and simmer

  1. Gradually heat the pan until the meat is browned, shaking it frequently to prevent burning.

  2. Add 1 pint of boiling water for each pound of meat and simmer for about 3 hours, skimming regularly.

Strain and store

  1. Once done, remove from heat and let it settle before straining.

  2. Place the gravy in a stone vessel, cover, and keep in a cool place for up to 3 days.

  3. Do not thicken until ready to use.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or veal
Provides the meat whose juices and browned flavour form the body of the gravy.
Butter
Fat that helps the meat brown in the pan and carries flavour.
Boiling water
Liquid that extracts flavour and gelatin from the meat during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Browning the meat. Heating gradually and shaking often lets the meat brown evenly without scorching. Browned meat gives deeper, roasted flavour, while burnt bits make the gravy bitter.

“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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