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To Heighten the Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

A gravy made by simmering diced ham with spices and herbs, then adding stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Heighten the Colour and the Flavour of Gravies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a small saucepan, slowly color the diced ham in butter.

  2. Shake the pan often to detach the browning while the ham is stewing.

  3. Add mace, cloves, bay leaf, savory herbs, shallots or onion, and parsley root.

  4. Stew the mixture for 30 minutes.

  5. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

Finish the gravy

  1. Ensure the side of the saucepan is colored reddish brown before adding the stock.

  2. If thickening is needed, stir in flour and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes before adding stock.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mace + clovetop 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

Ham
Browning in the butter builds savoury, deep flavour that colours the gravy.
Butter
Carries the ham's browning and adds richness to the base.
Shallots or onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it cooks slowly.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the stock, if used.

The step that matters

Browning the ham and pan side. Slow colouring of the ham and pan side to reddish brown creates the flavour base. Pale or burnt browning gives a weak or bitter gravy, so the heat should stay gentle and the pan should be shaken often.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, clove, shallot, parsley, beef, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, clove, shallot, parsley, beef, flour. 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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