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Beef Gravy F.

A hearty beef gravy made with ham or bacon, beef, carrot, onion, celery, broth, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef Gravy F.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cover the bottom of a clean, well-tinned stewpan with the slice of ham or bacon.

  2. Add the beef, carrot, onion, and celery.

Brown and simmer

  1. Pour in the pint of broth or water and cover the pan.

  2. Cook over moderate heat until the liquid reduces to just cover the ingredients.

  3. Stir the mixture and let it brown slightly and evenly.

  4. Add 3 quarts of boiling water and bring to a boil.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Provides the meat and collagen that give the finished gravy body and richness.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the stock as it renders.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and savoury depth as it softens and browns in the pan.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Celery
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Browning the mixture. Letting the meat and vegetables brown slightly and evenly, without scorching, builds the Maillard flavours that make the gravy taste deep. Stirring helps the browning stay even.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, carrot, onion, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, carrot, onion, celery. 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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