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Another Method of Making Gravy

A savory gravy made from beef, veal, mutton, bacon, carrot, mace, pepper, onion, herbs, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Another Method of Making Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef, veal, and mutton into small pieces.

Make the gravy

  1. Layer the beef, mutton, bacon, carrot, mace, black pepper, onion, sweet herbs, and veal in a stew pan.

  2. Cover the pan and set it on low heat for 6-7 minutes, shaking occasionally.

  3. Add flour and pour in boiling water until the meat is covered.

  4. Cover the pan again and let the gravy stew until rich and flavorful.

Finish

  1. Season with coarse sea salt to taste and strain for use.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meat flavour and savoury richness as it stews.
Veal
Adds gelatin-rich body and a mild, delicate meat flavour to the gravy.
Mutton
Contributes deeper meaty flavour and body to the stewed liquid.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the gravy becomes smooth and lightly bodied.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it cooks down into the stock.

The step that matters

Covering the pan and keeping the heat low. Gentle, low heat lets the meat release its juices and collagen slowly. Boiling hard would toughen the meat and can make the gravy cloudy or greasy.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, carrot, pepper, onion, flour. 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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