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Brown Gravy

A simple gravy made by browning flour in fat, seasoning, and adding stock or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Brown Gravy

Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the roux

  1. In a pan used for cooking meat, add flour and seasonings to the fat.

  2. Stir over heat until the flour is browned.

Thicken and strain

  1. Add 1 cup of boiling water or stock.

  2. Cook until thick, then strain.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells in the hot liquid, and browning adds nutty flavour.
Fat
Carries the seasonings and helps the flour brown evenly, adding richness.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the gravy and supplies most of its savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. Flour cooked in fat browns into a nutty, deeper colour and flavour, and cooking it removes raw starch taste. Stir constantly so it colours evenly, because scorched flour turns bitter and dark.

“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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