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A Rich English Brown Gravy

A savory gravy made from ham, beef, aromatics, and seasonings, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

A Rich English Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and aromatics

  1. Brown the diced ham lightly in a pan and remove it.

  2. In the same pan, lightly fry the neck of beef until done, then add it over the ham.

  3. Add the chopped eschalots or onion and brown gently.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour in the boiling water or broth and bring to a slow boil.

  2. Skim off any scum, then add salt, cloves, mace, peppercorns, herbs, carrot, and celery.

  3. Boil gently until reduced to just over 1 pint.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the gravy and let it cool to remove the fat.

  2. Reheat the gravy, adjusting salt and adding flavoring as needed.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of beef
Provides the meat and rich, savoury body that flavours the finished gravy.
Lean ham
Adds a salty, savoury depth as it browns in the pan.
Eschalots or onion
Browned gently to add sweetness and aroma to the base.
Flour
Dredged onto the beef, where it helps the meat brown and lightly thickens the liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming and cooling before reheating. Skimming scum keeps the gravy clear, and cooling after straining lets the fat rise and solidify so it can be removed, giving a cleaner, less greasy result.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, flour, pepper, onion, clove, carrot):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, flour, pepper, onion, clove, carrot. 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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