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Rich Gravy

A savory beef gravy made with onions, beef, dried mushroom, bacon or ham, peppercorns, water, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rich Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Slice and fry the onions in a pan until light brown.

  2. Fry the diced gravy beef until brown.

  3. In a stewpan, combine the beef, onions, dried mushroom, bacon bone or ham, peppercorns, and water.

  4. Boil gently for 2 hours, then strain and remove all fat.

  5. If the gravy is not rich enough, boil it in a clean stewpan without a lid until reduced.

Thicken and serve

  1. To thicken, melt the butter in a small frying pan, gradually stir in the flour until it forms a thick paste.

  2. Cook the paste over the fire until it turns brown.

  3. Mix a small amount of the paste with boiling gravy to avoid lumps, then add it to the entire gravy.

  4. Boil the gravy again, and it is ready to serve.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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

Gravy beef
Provides the meaty flavour and body that the gravy is built on.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they brown in the pan.
Butter
Carries the flour into a roux and adds richness to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells in the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the roux to the gravy. If the paste is dropped in whole or the gravy is not hot, the flour clumps into lumps. Mixing a small amount with boiling gravy first lets the starch disperse evenly before the rest is stirred in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mushroom, ham, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mushroom, ham, butter, flour, 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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