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Brown Gravy

Brown gravy made from onion, dripping, flour, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Brown Gravy

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the onion, skin and all, in the dripping until browned.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour with the stock until smooth.

  3. Pour the flour mixture into the saucepan and stir until it boils.

  4. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar, and anchovy sauce if using.

  5. Strain out the onion 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy as its starch swells when heated.
Dripping
Carries the browning of the onion and adds rich flavour to the gravy.
Onion
Browns in the fat to add savoury, sweet flavour, then is strained out.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into gravy.

The step that matters

Stir the flour mixture until it boils. Flour must be heated to boiling so its starch swells and thickens the liquid; stopping early leaves the gravy thin and tasting of raw flour.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, flour, pepper, vinegar, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, flour, pepper, vinegar, anchovy, sauce. 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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