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A Flavouring Gravy

A savory gravy made from ham, turnip, carrot, celery, herbs, lemon peel, allspice, and optional flour, wine, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Flavouring Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Brown the ham in a dripping pan.

  2. Add the turnip, carrot, and celery, sliced thin, then include the winter savory, parsley, lemon peel, and allspice berries.

  3. Skim and strain the mixture.

  4. If desired, mix in a little flour to thicken.

  5. For game, add port, claret, or sherry and a pinch of cayenne 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Winter savory + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean uncooked ham
Browned in the pan to give the base its savory, meaty flavour.
Turnip
Adds body and mild sweetness as it cooks down into the broth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and colour to the broth.
White celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury flavour to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a gravy when stirred in.

The step that matters

Skimming and straining the mixture. Skimming removes fat and loose impurities that would make the gravy greasy and cloudy, and straining leaves a smooth, clear liquid. Doing this before any flour is added keeps the gravy from turning lumpy or heavy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, turnip, carrot, celery, winter savory, parsley, allspice):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Orangefits less well
  4. Avocadofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, turnip, carrot, celery, winter savory, parsley, allspice. 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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