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Another Way to Make Gravy

A gravy made by curing beef liver with salt, sugar, saltpetre, and spices, then simmering with meat, carrot, onion, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Way to Make Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the liver

  1. Dip the beef liver in water and wipe it dry.

  2. Rub the liver with coarse sea salt and brown sugar.

  3. Let it sit for 7-8 days, turning it frequently.

  4. Boil 1 ounce of saltpetre and 3 ounces of common salt in enough water to cover the liver.

  5. Wipe the liver dry and place it in the pickle solution.

  6. Let it sit for 6 weeks, then hang it to dry.

Make the gravy

  1. Boil the slice of meat, carrot, onion, and pepper in 1 pint of water for 1.5 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture and use it for gravy.

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 + 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

Beef liver
Forms the main body of the dish, which is cured and then dried.
Saltpetre
Helps the liver cure and keeps its colour during the long pickling.
Common salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the liver during the pickling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the salt in the cure.

The step that matters

Boiling the pickle solution. The saltpetre and salt must dissolve fully in enough water to cover the liver, so the cure reaches every part evenly. Uneven curing can leave spoiled or unsafe patches during the long rest.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, liver, sugar, meat, carrot, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, liver, sugar, meat, carrot, pepper. 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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