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Stock for Gravy

A beef-based stock made with herbs, vegetables, and fish, simmered and strained to create a rich gravy base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stock for Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Place thinly cut beef in a gravy pot, cover, heat gently, shaking often until the juices are absorbed back into the meat.

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

  3. Add a small amount of water, herbs, onion, spices, and a piece of ham; simmer until rich.

Make the vegetable base

  1. In a separate pot, melt the butter and sauté the carrots, onions, parsley, thyme, cloves, and bay leaves.

  2. Add the fish, salt, pepper, white wine, and broth; cover and simmer until everything is mashed; strain through a fine sieve.

Finish the stock

  1. In another pot, simmer the mushrooms, parsley, and chives in 4 pints of water until flavorful; strain both liquids and combine them.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

Lean beef
Releases rich meaty flavor into the stock as it simmers slowly in its own juices.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the stock as they soften and release their sugars.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth when sautéed in butter before simmering.
Fish
Break down during long simmering to add savory depth and body to the stock.
Dry white wine
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity that brightens the flavor of the stock.
Mushrooms
Add earthy umami flavor to the separately simmered liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering the fish and vegetables until mashed. Fish and vegetables must break down fully so their flavor and body release into the liquid; stopping early leaves the stock thin, and a rapid boil can make it cloudy and bitter.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, ham, butter, carrot, parsley, thyme. 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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