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Common Gravy

A thick beef gravy made with suet, onions, beef, trimmings, broth, carrots, and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Common Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pan

  1. Spread the bottom of a medium-sized saucepan with butter.

  2. Cover with thin slices of beef suet.

  3. Add slices of onions on top.

Make the gravy

  1. Place 6 pounds of gravy beef and any meat trimmings in the pan.

  2. Moisten with 1 quart of common broth.

  3. Set the saucepan over high heat to boil.

  4. When the broth reduces to a glaze, reduce the heat.

  5. Allow the gravy to develop a deep red-brown color.

  6. Fill the saucepan with more broth or water.

  7. Garnish with 2 carrots and 2 heads of celery.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + carrottop 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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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

Gravy beef
Provides the meat flavor and body that the gravy is built on.
Beef suet
Adds rich fat that carries flavor and coats the pan for browning.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma as they cook in the fat.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the onions and meat brown in the pan.

The step that matters

When the broth reduces to a glaze, reduce the heat.. A broth glaze can scorch and turn bitter if the heat stays high. Lowering the heat lets the meat and drippings brown deeply without burning.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, onion, meat, 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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