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Good Plain Gravy Soup

A hearty beef broth made by simmering beef shins with herbs, onions, shallots, cloves, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,677 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Good Plain Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Have the butcher break the bones of the beef.

  2. Place the beef in a stewpan and cover with cold water.

  3. Bring to a gentle boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add salt, peppercorns, sweet herbs, fried onions, shallots, and cloves.

  2. Simmer gently for 4 hours.

  3. Remove the meat and keep it warm or set aside for later.

  4. Strain the soup and let it stand overnight.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, remove the fat and heat the soup gently for 1 hour.

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. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water, giving the soup body and richness.
Onions
Fried brown, they add sweetness and deep savoury colour to the broth.
Black peppercorns
Release aromatic compounds slowly during simmering, adding a gentle warm spice.
Sweet herbs
Infuse the broth with aromatic herbal notes during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, shallot. 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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