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Another Method of Making Gravy

A savory gravy made by simmering beef, veal, mutton, bacon, carrot, onion, herbs, and spices, thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Another Method of Making Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the beef, veal, and mutton into small pieces and layer them in a stew pan, starting with beef, then mutton, bacon, carrot, mace, black pepper, onion, sweet herbs, and finally veal on top.

  2. Cover the pan and set it on low heat for 6-7 minutes, shaking it occasionally.

Make the gravy

  1. Add flour and pour in boiling water until the meat is completely covered.

  2. Cover the pan again and let the gravy stew until rich and flavorful.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt to taste and strain for 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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 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
Provides the main meaty flavor and body as it stews into the gravy.
Veal
Adds delicate gelatin from its connective tissue, giving the gravy a richer mouthfeel.
Mutton
Contributes a deeper, more robust meat flavor to the stewed gravy.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the gravy becomes smooth and lightly body-rich.

The step that matters

Stewing the gravy until rich and flavorful. Flavor develops slowly as collagen breaks down and meat juices mix with the liquid. Stewing too briefly leaves the gravy thin and bland, while the flour needs time to cook through and lose its raw taste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, mutton, carrot, pepper, onion, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, carrot, pepper, onion, 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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