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Gravy a LA Diable

A spicy brown stock gravy flavored with claret, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, and soy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and mustard share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Gravy a LA Diable

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the arrowroot with the claret.

  2. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve with kidneys, steaks, or grilled fish.

  2. For a spicier sauce, increase the Worcestershire sauce or add a few crushed chili seeds.

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. Arrowroot + mustardtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Arrowroot + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together329 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Arrowroot + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the stock into a glossy sauce as it heats.
Clear brown stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries its savory flavor.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavor to the sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth and gives the sauce its spiciness when increased.

The step that matters

Bring the arrowroot mixture to a boil. Arrowroot must be fully heated to thicken; it needs to be mixed smooth first so it does not clump. Once boiled, it thickens quickly and can turn thin if it is held at a boil too long.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, sauce, pepper):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, sauce, pepper. 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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