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Gravy Kettle

A stew of ham, mushrooms, parsley, and onions simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Gravy Kettle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the glaze

  1. Pour a small quantity of liquid into the pan and reduce it by rapid boiling until it becomes a glaze.

  2. Once the glaze has the proper color, add boiling broth in small portions and shake the pan to detach the glaze.

Stew

  1. Stew the meat gently for 3-4 hours with mushrooms, parsley, and green onions or a Portugal onion.

  2. Add thick slices of unboiled ham for richer flavor.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Mushroom + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Unboiled ham
Adds meaty, savory flavor to the broth during the long stew.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavor and moisture to the stew.
Boiling broth
Provides the liquid base and dissolves the glaze into the sauce.
Green onions or portugal onion
Add aromatic sweetness and depth as they soften in the stew.

The step that matters

Reducing the liquid to a glaze. Rapid boiling concentrates the liquid and caramelizes its sugars and proteins into a browned glaze. If it is under-reduced or burnt, the flavor is weak or bitter. Adding broth too quickly can stop the glaze from detaching cleanly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, onion, ham):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, onion, ham. 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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