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Game Gravy

A clear veal gravy flavored with basil, onion, citrus peel, orange juice, red wine, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,294 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Game Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Combine the veal gravy, basil, onion, and orange or lemon peel in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil for a few minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Add the juice of the Seville orange or lemon, salt, pepper, and red wine to the clear gravy.

Serve

  1. Serve 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. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Basil + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  5. Basil + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,600 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal gravy
Forms the savoury base of the sauce, giving body and depth of flavour.
Red wine
Adds acidity and rich aroma that brighten the savoury gravy.
Seville orange or lemon juice
Contributes acidity and a bright citrus note to balance the richness.
Orange or lemon peel
Adds aromatic citrus oils that scent the gravy as it simmers.

The step that matters

Straining the mixture. Straining after boiling removes the basil, onion and peel so the gravy becomes clear and smooth. Leaving solids in would make the sauce cloudy and gritty.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, basil, onion, pepper, red wine):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, basil, onion, pepper, red wine. 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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