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A Good Gravy

A hearty gravy made from beef, kidney, mutton shanks, herbs, onions, and lean ham, simmered until rich.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Good Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the skirt of beef and kidney into pieces.

  2. Soak and clean the shank bones of mutton.

Make the gravy

  1. In a frying pan, cook the lean beef without butter until the juices are absorbed.

  2. Add enough water to cover the meat and let it stew.

  3. Add a small quantity of water, herbs, onions, spices, and a bit of lean ham.

  4. Simmer until rich and store in a cool place without removing the fat.

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

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

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

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

  3. Tarragon + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beef + tarragontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together310 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Releases and then reabsorbs its juices, building concentrated meaty flavour in the pan.
Skirt of beef
Adds connective tissue that breaks down during stewing, giving body and richness to the gravy.
Shank bones of mutton
Release gelatin and marrow flavour into the liquid, contributing body and depth.
Ox kidney or milt
Adds savoury, rich flavour and tender texture to the stewed meat.

The step that matters

Simmer until rich and store without removing the fat. Gentle simmering lets collagen and gelatin from the bones and connective tissue dissolve slowly into the liquid, giving body. Boiling hard can make the broth cloudy and the meat tough. Leaving the fat on top helps protect the gravy from drying and spoiling while it cools.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Pepperfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Tarragonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, onion, ham. 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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