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Gravies for Soups and Sauces

A beef-based gravy made by simmering meat, vegetables, herbs, and salt in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Gravies for Soups and Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into thin slices and chop the bone into several pieces.

  2. In a pot or saucepan, add a little water, then add the meat, bones, onions, leeks, thyme, parsley, celery trimmings, carrots, turnips, and salt.

  3. Place the pot over the fire and let it boil slowly until the liquid is reduced and the meat at the bottom is cooked through.

Simmer and strain

  1. Fill the pot with cold water and bring it to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises.

  2. Stir the mixture from the bottom with a spoon and add more cold water as needed.

  3. Let it boil slowly for about 4 hours, then strain the liquid.

  4. Return the strained liquid to the pot, fill it half full with water, and boil slowly for 2-3 hours before straining again.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  4. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 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 leg or shin
Releases collagen and savoury flavour into the stock as it simmers slowly.
Bones (in the method)
Add gelatin and body to the stock during long, slow simmering.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock's base flavour.
Leeks
Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the stock.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and rounded flavour to the stock.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam that rises at the start contains coagulated proteins and impurities; skimming it keeps the stock clear and free of off-flavours.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, leek, thyme, parsley, celery, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, leek, thyme, parsley, celery, carrot, turnip. 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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