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Gravy for General Use

A veal-based gravy made by simmering veal pieces with water, salt, pepper, bouquet garni, carrot, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Gravy for General Use

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine veal pieces and ½ cup soft water in a large saucepan.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce until a glaze forms.

  4. Add 3 pints of water, salt, pepper, bouquet garni, carrot, and onion.

  5. Bring to a boil again.

  6. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 2 hours, skimming as needed.

  7. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve and set aside for use.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Fillet of veal
Provides the meat and gelatin that give the gravy its body and rich flavor.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Reduce until a glaze forms. The veal must reduce slowly until its juices caramelize and stick to the pan, building deep browned flavor. Stopping too early leaves the gravy pale and thin, while burning it turns the flavor bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, carrot, clove):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, carrot, clove. 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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