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To II Eight En Tiie Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

A ham gravy flavored with mace, cloves, bay leaf, savory herbs, shallots, parsley root, and beef 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 II Eight En Tiie Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a small saucepan, slowly color the diced ham in butter.

  2. Add mace, cloves, bay leaf, savory herbs, shallots (or onion), and parsley root.

  3. Stew the mixture for 30 minutes.

Make the gravy

  1. Gradually add the stock.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes or more, ensuring the pan's side is reddish brown.

  3. If thickening is needed, stir in flour.

  4. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.

  5. Add the stock.

  6. Shake the pan often to detach the browning while the ham stews.

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
Provides savory meaty flavor and browns to deepen the gravy's color.
Butter
Carries fat that helps the ham color evenly and adds richness.
Shallots
Add a mild aromatic sweetness that rounds out the savory base.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavors and becomes the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smoother, more body-filled gravy.

The step that matters

Shake the pan and watch the browning. Browned proteins and sugars build color and savory depth, but scorched bits turn bitter. Shaking the pan lifts the browning off the surface before it burns.

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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