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Gravy Stock

A savory stock made with bacon or ham, beef, vegetables, herbs, spices, anchovy, and beef stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gravy Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the bacon or ham in a stewpan.

  2. Layer the thinly cut beef on top of the bacon.

  3. Add the sliced carrot, onion, crust of bread, sweet herbs, mace, cloves, nutmeg, and anchovy.

Cook

  1. Cover and cook on low heat for 5-6 minutes.

  2. Pour in the beef stock and cover tightly.

  3. Let it simmer until half the liquid has evaporated.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Browns gently in the pan and adds meaty flavor to the stock.
Bacon or lean ham
Releases fat that starts the cooking and adds savory flavor.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth as it softens in the pan.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the stock.
Beef stock
Provides the liquid base that is reduced into the gravy.
Anchovy
Adds deep savory flavor that rounds out the stock without tasting fishy.

The step that matters

Let it simmer until half the liquid has evaporated. Reducing concentrates flavor and thickens the stock. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps it clear and prevents the proteins and fats from emulsifying into a cloudy liquid.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, carrot, onion, bread, clove, nutmeg. 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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