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Gravy for Roast Meats

A simple gravy made from roast meat fat, hot water or stock, and seasoned with gravy salt, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Gravy for Roast Meats

Oven, in the book's wordsThe hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “the hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Pour the warm fat from the roast into a bowl for future use.

  2. Add a little hot water or stock to the roasting pan with the meat juices.

  3. Place the pan in a 400°F (200°C) oven and add a little gravy salt to color the gravy.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, then strain the gravy over the meat on the serving dish.

  5. When the meat is cut, its juices will enhance the gravy already on the dish.

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. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 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

Fat from roast meat
Carries meat flavor and richness, and is set aside for future use here.
Hot water or stock
Liquid that dissolves the meat juices and browned residue in the pan to form the gravy.
Gravy salt
Seasons the gravy and helps it color as it heats in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding hot water or stock to the roasting pan. The liquid should be added while the pan is still hot so it lifts the browned bits and meat juices off the pan. Cold liquid loosens them less readily, so less flavor reaches the gravy.

“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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