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Gravy

A savory gravy made with water, butter, flour, parsley, sweet herbs, burnt onions, cloves, and mushroom catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. In a saucepan, combine water, butter, flour, parsley, sweet herbs, burnt onions, cloves, and mushroom catsup.

  2. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve

  1. Garnish with lemon 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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth gravy as it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour into the gravy.
Mushroom catsup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the gravy.
Burnt onions
Contribute deep colour and a roasted, slightly bitter aroma.

The step that matters

Simmering with flour. Flour must be stirred in well and simmered gently so it cooks out fully and thickens smoothly. Stirring during simmering keeps it from settling and forming lumps or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, parsley, clove, mushroom, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, clove, mushroom, lemon. 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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