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White Gravy

A light mutton gravy made with shank bones, veal, lemon, herbs, and finished with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

White Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. In a pot, combine the mutton shank bones, veal, lemon rind, lemon thyme, parsley, mace, onion, and bacon or ham.

  2. Add 3 pints of water and stew until the meat is well boiled.

  3. Thicken the mixture with flour and butter.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in ½ pint of cream, but do not let it boil after adding the cream to prevent curdling.

  2. Strain the gravy and remove any fat 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.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton shank bones
Release meat flavour and gelatin into the water, giving the gravy body and savour.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the gravy its smooth, coating consistency.
Butter
Enriches the thickened gravy and carries flavour, adding richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, rounder texture to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream without boiling. Cream contains proteins that can curdle and separate when held at a full boil, especially in an acidic or salty liquid. Adding it at the end and keeping the gravy just below boiling keeps it smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, veal, lemon, thyme, parsley, onion, ham):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, veal, lemon, thyme, parsley, 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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