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Good Beef or Veal Gravy

A savory gravy made from simmered beef or veal bones, water, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Good Beef or Veal Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef or veal bones and water.

  2. Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery, and bay leaf.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours.

Finish the gravy

  1. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve, discarding the solids.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or veal bones
Release collagen and savoury flavour into the water, giving the liquid body and depth.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens during the long simmer.
Carrot
Contributes natural sweetness and background flavour to the stock.
Celery
Adds a fresh, savoury aroma that rounds out the stock's flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2-3 hours. A rolling boil makes the stock cloudy and can emulsify fat into it. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer gives a clearer, cleaner-tasting gravy base.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, celery, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, celery, 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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