Name: Gravy
Ingredients: skirt of beef, kidney, or milt; liver of a fat ox; onions; herbs; spices; shank-bones of legs and shoulders of mutton; water

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 ↓

Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the meat into pieces and fry with onions.
Season with herbs and spices.
Soak shank-bones in water, then brush and boil for several hours.
Remove the fat from the boiled mixture and clarify the gravy using white paper.
Beat the meat with a rolling pin and score it to release juices.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,373 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,420 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Beef + livertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together431 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Onion + muttontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,531 recipes

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