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Rich Brown Gravy Soup

A hearty beef soup with brown gravy, vegetables, and Madeira or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Rich Brown Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Fry and prepare

  1. Fry the beef steak and sliced onions until light brown.

  2. In a stewpan, melt the butter, then add the meat and onions.

  3. Add the sliced carrot, turnip, celery, mace, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Pour in the clear stock and stew gently.

  5. Gradually add the water, removing any scum that rises.

Simmer and strain

  1. Let it simmer for six hours, then strain and cool to remove fat.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, heat the soup and add the Madeira or sherry.

  2. Serve with boiled macaroni pieces.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Provides the main meat flavour and body once simmered into the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth when browned at the start.
Butter
Carries flavour from the browned meat and onions into the soup as fat.
Clear stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Madeira or sherry
Adds aroma and a fortified wine sweetness added just before serving.

The step that matters

Removing scum while adding the water. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Skimming it as it forms keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, butter, carrot, turnip, celery, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, butter, carrot, turnip, celery, pepper. 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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