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Gravy for Haricots, Curries, or Hashes of Mutton

A gravy made from mutton kidneys, butter, onion, herbs, water, and spices, simmered until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gravy for Haricots, Curries, or Hashes of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the gravy

  1. Boil the gravy gently for 1.5 hours or longer until thick and rich.

  2. Strain it through a fine sieve and remove the fat.

Season and finish

  1. Add spice or catsup to taste.

  2. For improvement, add 2-3 shallots and a small piece of lean meat.

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

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 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 kidneys
Provide the main meaty body and deep, rich flavor of the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the gravy.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and mild sweetness as it cooks down into the gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy gently for 1.5 hours or longer. A gentle simmer lets collagen and meat proteins break down slowly, giving a tender, well-thickened gravy. Boiling hard can make the liquid cloudy and tough, and stopping too early leaves it thin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, 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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