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Gravy for Meat

A simple gravy made by boiling meat in water and reducing the liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Gravy for Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add 1 pint of boiling water to each pound of meat.

  2. Remove any scum that forms on the surface.

  3. Add a little coarse sea salt.

  4. Boil the gravy until it is reduced by half.

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the main flavour and body, releasing savoury juices and gelatin into the liquid as it cooks.
Boiling water
Extracts flavour and gelatin from the meat and forms the liquid that reduces into gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy until it is reduced by half. Reducing concentrates the flavour and thickens the liquid. Stopping too early leaves the gravy thin and bland, while over-reducing makes it salty and sticky.

“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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