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Another Way to Make Gravy Without Meat

A savory gravy made with butter, flour, onion, mushroom ketchup, and port wine, suitable for meatless dishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Gravy Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the roux

  1. Knead flour into the butter until well combined.

  2. Fry the mixture in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it turns a nice brown color.

  3. Ensure the mixture is perfectly smooth.

Finish the gravy

  1. Pour in boiling water and add the minced onion, black pepper, and salt.

  2. Transfer to a small saucepan, cover, and simmer for a short time.

  3. Strain the gravy and mix in the mushroom ketchup and port wine.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melted with flour, it forms the roux that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Flour
Cooked in fat to form a roux, thickening the gravy as it browns.
Onion
Its minced pieces add savory flavor to the gravy as it simmers.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep, savory umami flavor that stands in for meat drippings.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity depth to balance the savory gravy.

The step that matters

Brown the roux until it is nut-brown. Frying the flour and butter over medium heat develops color and a toasty flavor, but the mixture can scorch if left unattended. Stirring constantly keeps it from burning and lumping, and the browned roux then thickens the liquid more evenly when boiling water is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, port wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, port wine. 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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