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Gravy or Sauce for a Goose

A savory sauce made with butter, onion, flour, brown gravy, mustard, port wine, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gravy or Sauce for a Goose

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and brown the minced onion.

  2. Once the onion begins to brown, stir in the flour and cook for 5-6 minutes.

  3. Gradually pour in the brown gravy and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

  4. Strain the sauce, then bring it back to a boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix the mustard with the port wine and add to the sauce.

  2. Season with cayenne and salt if needed, but do not let it boil after adding the wine.

  3. Serve very hot.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Onion
Browns in the butter to build a deep, savory flavor base for the gravy.
Flour
Cooked with the onion and butter to thicken the gravy into a smooth sauce.
Brown gravy
Forms the body of the sauce, providing most of its liquid and savory flavor.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity depth that rounds out the savory gravy.
Made mustard
Adds sharpness and a tangy note that balances the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Do not boil after adding the port wine. Boiling after the wine is added can drive off alcohol and dull its delicate fruity flavor, and can also make the sauce taste harsher. Keep it hot but below a boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, mustard, port wine, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, mustard, port wine, 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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