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Gravy for Ham

A savory gravy made with ham, beef, aromatics, and broth, simmered until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat and aromatics

  1. Brown the ham in a pan and remove it.

  2. Brown the neck of beef in the same pan.

  3. Add the eschalots or onion and brown gently.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour in the boiling water or broth and bring to a boil, skimming off the scum.

  2. Add salt, cloves, mace, peppercorns, herbs, carrot, and celery.

  3. Simmer the gravy until reduced to a thick consistency.

Finish

  1. Strain the gravy and remove excess fat.

  2. Adjust seasoning with more salt or flavorings as needed.

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

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

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of beef
Breaks down during simmering to give the gravy body and meaty flavor.
Ham
Browning adds savory depth, and it seasons the liquid as it cooks.
Eschalots or onion
Browned gently, they add sweetness and aromatic depth to the gravy.
Flour
Dredged onto the beef, it helps brown the meat and thicken the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer the gravy until reduced to a thick consistency. Slow reduction concentrates flavor and thickens the liquid gradually. Boiling too hard can make the gravy cloudy and greasy, so keep it at a gentle simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, flour, pepper, onion, clove, carrot):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, flour, pepper, onion, clove, carrot. 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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