Skip to main content
Main

To Make a Common Gravy

A simple beef gravy made with chuck or neck beef, flour, water, onion, spices, and bread crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Make a Common Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces.

  2. Dredge flour over the meat and mix well.

Make the gravy

  1. Place the meat in a saucepan and cover with water.

  2. Add the onion, allspice, pepper, and salt.

  3. Cover and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  4. Add the crust of bread or raspings and let it stew until the gravy is rich.

  5. Strain the gravy before serving.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat and richness that give the gravy its body and flavour.
Flour
Coats the meat and thickens the liquid as the gravy cooks.
Bread crust or raspings
Adds body and a toasted flavour to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming off the foam. Foam that rises as the liquid comes to a boil contains impurities that can make the gravy cloudy and taste bitter. Removing it early keeps the gravy clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, onion, pepper, bread. 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.

More beef gravy recipes

Soup 28Rich 9Roast 5Clear 4Sauce 3 See all 96 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes