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To Heighten the Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

A method to enrich gravies with colour and flavour using ham, spices, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Heighten the Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a small saucepan, slowly colour the diced ham in butter over low heat.

  2. Add mace, cloves, bay leaf, herbs, shallots, and parsley root to the pan.

Simmer and reduce

  1. Gradually add the stock or broth after stewing the mixture for 30 minutes.

  2. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes or more, ensuring the pan is shaken often.

  3. If thickening is needed, stir in flour and simmer for 3-4 minutes before adding stock.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean unboiled ham
Browns in butter to build savoury flavour that carries into the stock.
Butter
Fat that helps colour the ham and carries the aromatic flavours.
Beef stock or strong broth
Main liquid that becomes the body and colour of the finished gravy.
Flour
Thickens the liquid slightly when used, adding body to the gravy.

The step that matters

Colouring the ham slowly over low heat. Gentle heat lets the ham brown gradually, building colour and flavour without scorching. Scorched fat and protein turn bitter and would taint the whole gravy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, clove, shallot, parsley, beef, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, clove, shallot, parsley, beef, flour. 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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