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A Rich Gravy

A gravy made from beef slices, onions, flour, water, herbs, and ham or bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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

Make the base

  1. Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan.

  2. Fry the sliced onions and flour until light pale brown, avoiding any blackening.

  3. Transfer the browned mixture to a stewpan and pour boiling water over it.

Simmer the gravy

  1. Add the beef slices and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the parsley, thyme, savory, marjoram, tarragon, mace, allspice, black pepper, and ham or bacon.

  3. Simmer until all juices are extracted from the meat, skimming the surface frequently.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 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
Releases its juices and flavour into the broth as it simmers, forming the body of the gravy.
Onions
Browned with flour, they add sweetness and deep savoury colour to the gravy.
Flour
Browned with the onions, it thickens the liquid and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, smoky richness that deepens the savoury flavour of the broth.

The step that matters

Fry the onions and flour without blackening. Light browning develops nutty, savoury flavour and colour, while scorching produces bitter, burnt compounds that carry into the finished gravy and cannot be removed.

Swap the mace

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

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

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