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To Make Veal, Mutton, or Beef Gravy

A savory gravy made by simmering veal, mutton, or beef with bacon or ham, onions, turnip, carrot, celery, thyme, allspice, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,077 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Make Veal, Mutton, or Beef Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Place the bacon or ham at the bottom of a stewpan.

  2. Layer the thinly sliced meat over the bacon or ham.

  3. Add the chopped onion, turnip, carrot, celery, thyme, and allspice on top of the meat.

  4. Pour a little water at the bottom of the pan and set it over gentle heat.

  5. Cook until the bottom is brown and the pan hisses.

Stew and season

  1. Pour boiling water over the mixture and stew gently for 1.5 hours, or less for smaller quantities.

  2. Season with salt to taste.

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. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat (veal, mutton, or beef)
Provides the main body and rich meat flavour of the gravy as it stews.
Bacon or ham
Releases fat and savoury flavour into the pan, building a base for the gravy.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and depth as it softens and browns in the pan.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and body to the stewed liquid.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and colour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the bottom of the pan. Cooking until the base is brown and the pan hisses caramelises the sugars and meat proteins, adding colour and deep flavour to the gravy. Under-browning leaves it pale and flat, while scorching turns it bitter.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, meat, turnip, carrot, celery, thyme, 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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