Name: Make-ahead Gravy
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Yield: Serves 6 - 8
Ingredients: 1 onion , chopped; 2 carrots , finely diced; 2 celery sticks, finely chopped; 2 bay leaves; 1 large thyme sprig; large knob of butter; 1 tbsp sugar; 2 tbsp plain flour; 1 tsp Marmite (optional, but it does add colour and depth); 1 tbsp tomato purée; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1l vegetable, chicken or beef stock (depending on what you're serving it with, or who to); soy sauce , to taste

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,563 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,193 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Thyme + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, thyme, butter, sugar, flour, tomato):

Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, thyme, butter, sugar, flour, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Vegetable	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2

Make-ahead Gravy

Make-ahead Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

Explore the science

The flavor team

Swap the onion