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Gravy, Shallot

A simple shallot gravy made with wine vinegar and brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,374 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Gravy, Shallot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the shallots.

  2. Place them in an earthenware stewpan with the wine vinegar.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the brown gravy and serve.

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 + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Shallot + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Shallots
Soften while boiling and add a mild, sweet onion flavour to the gravy.
Wine vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the gravy.
Brown gravy
Provides the savoury body, colour and main flavour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Boiling the shallots in vinegar. Boiling drives off the sharpness of the vinegar while softening the shallots, so their sweetness balances the acid. Watch the liquid, because if it reduces too far the shallots can dry out and scorch before the gravy is added.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, vinegar):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, vinegar. 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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