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Brown Gravy

A savory beef gravy made with water, beef, bacon, onion, butter, flour, and seasonings, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Brown Gravy

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat and bacon into small pieces and slice the onion.

Make the stock

  1. Melt the dripping in a stewpan, then add the meat, bacon, and onion, frying until brown.

  2. Add the water, salt, pepper, and clove, then cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Thicken and finish

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan, stir in the flour, and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the strained gravy, stir until it boils, skim, and simmer for 10 minutes before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the gravy when cooked in melted butter to form a roux.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the roux that thickens the gravy.
Beef neck or shin
Releases juices and gelatin during long cooking, giving the gravy body and savoury flavour.
Onion
Browns during frying and adds sweetness and savoury depth to the stock.
Bacon or ham
Adds smoky, savoury flavour to the stock as it cooks.

The step that matters

Frying the meat, bacon and onion until brown. Browning builds deep savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale frying gives a flat, washed-out gravy, so the pieces should be well coloured before the water goes in.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, onion, ham, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, onion, ham, 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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