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A Rich English Brown Gravy

A savory gravy made with ham, beef, onions, spices, and vegetables, simmered in water or broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

A Rich English Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat and aromatics

  1. Brown ham in a pan.

  2. Remove ham.

  3. Lightly fry neck of beef in the same pan until done.

  4. Add the cooked beef over the ham.

  5. Brown eschalots or onion gently.

  6. Add them to the pan.

Simmer and strain

  1. Pour in boiling water or broth.

  2. Bring to a slow boil.

  3. Skim off any scum.

  4. Add salt, cloves, mace, peppercorns, herbs, carrot, and celery.

  5. Boil gently until reduced to just over 1 pint.

  6. Strain the gravy.

  7. Let it sit until the fat rises to the top.

Finish

  1. Reheat the gravy.

  2. Adjust seasoning with salt and flavoring as needed.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of beef
Provides rich meat flavour and body to the gravy as it simmers.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth from browning in the pan.
Eschalots or onion
Browned gently to add sweetness and savoury aroma to the base.
Carrot
Contributes subtle sweetness and aroma during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum. Scum rising during the first boil contains coagulated proteins and impurities that would cloud the gravy and taste bitter if left in.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, flour, pepper, onion, clove, carrot. 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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