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Pork Gravy

A gravy made from meat trimmings, onion, toasted bread or flour, and a tea‑cupful of boiled meat liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pork Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Make a broth with the meat trimmings and onion.

  2. Thicken the broth with toasted bread or dried flour.

Finish and serve

  1. Ensure the gravy does not touch the pork rind to avoid sogginess.

  2. For boiled meat, use a tea-cupful of the skimmed cooking liquor.

  3. Enhance flavor by adding sauce over the meat if desired.

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. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  2. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

  3. Bread + teatop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together383 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Meat + teatop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together207 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat trimmings
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the broth as they simmer.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness that rounds out the broth's flavor.
Toasted bread or dried flour
Starch swells when heated in liquid, thickening the gravy.
Cooking liquor from boiled meat
Adds meaty flavor and moisture to the gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the broth with toasted bread or dried flour. Starch only thickens when heated in liquid, and it clumps if dropped in dry. Add it gradually while stirring, then simmer so the starch swells fully and the gravy smooths out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, tea):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, tea. 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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