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Gravy

A rich gravy made from browned beef and veal, reduced with white wine and simmered in hot broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. In a stewpan, heat the clarified fat over moderate heat.

  2. Add the beef and veal pieces, stirring often until browned.

Build the broth

  1. Pour in the white wine and reduce the liquid to a glaze.

  2. Add the hot broth and skim carefully.

  3. Once it begins to bubble, move the pan to a slow fire.

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 + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Beef + white winetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together872 recipes

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

  3. Veal + white winetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together666 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef leg
Provides the main meaty flavor and body as its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin.
Veal
Adds gelatin from its bones and joints, giving the gravy a richer, silkier body.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth, and its reduction concentrates flavor into a glaze.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that extracts flavor and gelatin from the meat over long simmering.

The step that matters

Reducing the wine to a glaze. If the wine is not reduced fully, its sharp acidity and raw alcohol flavor remain in the gravy. Cooking it down concentrates the flavor and mellows the taste before the broth is added.

“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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