Name: Gravy
Ingredients: skirt of beef, kidney, or milt; liver of a fat ox; onions; herbs; spices; water; cow-heels (optional); pepper; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the meat into pieces and fry with onions.
Season with herbs, spices, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
If using shank-bones, soak and brush them, then boil in water for several hours.
For cow-heels, soak overnight in water, then boil for 3 hours.
Remove the fat from the boiled mixture and clarify the liquid with white paper.
Beat the meat with a rolling pin and score it to release juices before stewing.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,420 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Beef + livertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together431 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).