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A Rich Gravy

A thick gravy made from thinly sliced beef, onions, herbs, and ham or bacon, simmered until juices are extracted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

A Rich Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into thin slices.

  2. Slice the onions thinly and fry them until light pale brown.

Make the gravy

  1. Put the fried onions into a stew-pan and pour boiling water over the browned onions in the frying pan.

  2. Boil the water and pour it over the meat.

  3. Add a bunch of parsley, thyme, savoury, knotted marjoram, tarragon, mace, allspice berries, whole black peppers, cloves, and a bit of ham or bacon.

  4. Simmer until all juices are extracted from the meat, skimming often.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together148 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 flavour and collagen that gives the gravy body as it simmers.
Onions
Browning them first adds sweetness and deeper, roasted flavour to the liquid.
Ham or gammon of bacon
Adds savoury, salty and smoky depth to the gravy.
Thyme
Contributes a warm, herbal aroma that rounds out the savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming while simmering. Simmering draws out juices and fat, and foam and scum rise to the surface. Skimming them off keeps the gravy clear and stops it tasting greasy or bitter.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley, thyme, marjoram, tarragon, allspice):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley, thyme, marjoram, tarragon, allspice. 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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