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Gravy Soup

A clear broth made from bones, vegetables, herbs, and seasonings, finished with Liebig’s extract and optional sugar browning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place bones in a pot and cover with 2 quarts of cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and skim the surface.

  3. Add carrots, turnips, onion, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, mace, and peppercorns.

  4. Simmer gently for 2 hours, skimming occasionally.

Finish the soup

  1. Strain the stock and season with salt.

  2. Dissolve Liebig's extract in the stock.

  3. If not browned enough, add sugar browning and boil again 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the stock body and depth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and a subtle earthy flavour to the stock.
Liebig's extract of meat
Concentrates meaty savouriness, boosting the overall flavour of the stock.
Sugar browning
Adds colour and a slightly caramel note to the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface after boiling. Bringing the stock to a boil releases coagulated proteins and fat that form a scum. Skimming removes them, keeping the soup clear and free of greasy, muddy flavours. Skim occasionally during simmering as well.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, clove, parsley, thyme, meat):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion, clove, parsley, thyme, meat. 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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