Skip to main content
Main

Rich Brown Gravy

A savory gravy made from chopped meat, butter, onion, herbs, and toasted bread, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rich Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Chop the meat and ham (if using) as finely as possible.

  2. In a stew pan, melt the butter over low heat and add the sliced onion and chopped meat. Cover and cook for a few minutes, stirring to prevent sticking.

  3. Once the meat is browned, gradually add the water.

Simmer and strain

  1. When it boils, add any bones, chicken heads, or feet you have. Skim off any foam, then add the toasted bread, herbs, lemon peel, allspice, and black pepper.

  2. Cover and simmer until the liquid reduces by half and the bones look white and dry.

  3. Strain the gravy and let it cool, then skim off any fat.

Thicken and finish

  1. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour.

  2. For added flavor, blend the poultry or game livers with butter, cayenne, nutmeg, port wine, mushroom ketchup, and lemon juice, then stir into the gravy.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Winter savory + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together863 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Winter savory + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together616 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Browns in butter and, as it simmers, gives the gravy its main savory body.
Butter
Carries the onion and meat in the first browning and adds richness to the finished gravy.
Onion
Sweetens and deepens the flavor as it softens and browns with the meat.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it coats the spoon.
Brown bread
Toasted bread adds a roasted, toasty note and some body to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Skim the foam and fat. Foam left on the surface during the boil and fat left after straining can make the gravy look cloudy and taste greasy. Skimming at both points keeps it clear and clean-flavored.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes