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Invalid Gravy Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, onion, carrot, herbs, and port, thickened with cornflour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Invalid Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces and slice the onion and carrot.

  2. Flour the pieces of beef.

Make the soup

  1. Heat the butter in a pot and brown the beef and sliced vegetables.

  2. Add the water and herbs, then simmer gently for 2.5 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Thicken the strained mixture with cornflour mixed with 3 tablespoons of cold stock or water.

  5. Bring the soup to a boil again.

  6. Add the port.

  7. 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Provides the main meat flavour and body as it simmers into the broth.
Cornflour
Thickens the strained liquid into a smoother, more body-filled soup.
Butter
Carries the browning of the beef and vegetables, adding richness and aroma.
Port
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Thicken with cornflour slurry. Cornflour must be mixed smoothly with cold liquid before it goes into hot soup, or it forms lumps. Starch thickens only once it is heated, so the soup should be brought back to a boil after adding it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, carrot, parsley, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, carrot, parsley, thyme. 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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