Name: Another Receipt for Gravy-soup
Ingredients: 1 pound beef, cut from the bones; ¼ cup bouillon; 1 pint water for every pound of meat; 4 medium onions, fried; 6 ounces fresh butter; 5 ounces flour; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; ½ cup sherry; cayenne pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste

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 ↓

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).
Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides the main meaty flavor and body, and browns for savory depth.
Flour: Coats the beef for browning and later thickens the soup as its starch sets.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, and helps the flour blend into the thickening.
Onions: Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding aroma to the broth.
Sherry: Adds acidity and aromatic complexity to the finished soup.
Soy sauce: Adds salty, savory depth that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Thickening with butter and flour mixed smoothly. Flour clumps when it meets hot liquid unless it is blended smoothly with the butter first. Well-blended starch then thickens the soup evenly as it heats, without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, butter, flour, sauce, sherry, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Potatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, butter, flour, sauce, sherry, pepper. 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.

Another Receipt for Gravy-soup