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Gravy for Roast Meat

A gravy made from the natural drippings of roast meat, enhanced with simple stock, shallot, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gravy for Roast Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pan

  1. Remove the cooked meat from the pan and set it aside.

  2. Carefully remove the fat from the dripping pan.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour the natural gravy into a dish, avoiding pouring it over the meat.

  2. If more gravy is needed, prepare simple stock gravy by stewing the shin of beef, shallot, pepper, and salt in a small saucepan.

  3. Add the stock gravy to the natural gravy and baste the joint with it before serving.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  3. Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Meat + shallottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together484 recipes

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

  5. Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Natural gravy from the roast meat
Provides concentrated meat flavour and body as the base of the gravy.
Shin of beef
Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the simple stock gravy as it stews.
Shallot
Adds a mild aromatic sweetness to the stock gravy.

The step that matters

Stewing the simple stock gravy. If more gravy is needed, the stock must simmer gently so the meat releases its flavour and gelatin without the liquid reducing too quickly or turning cloudy. Slow, gentle heat keeps the gravy clear and well flavoured.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, 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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