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Brown Gravy

A thickened beef gravy made with water, beef, bacon, onion, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Brown Gravy

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 ↓

Brown Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the meat and bacon into small pieces.

  2. Slice the onion.

  3. Melt the dripping in a stewpan.

  4. Add the meat, bacon, and onion to the stewpan. Fry the contents until brown.

Make the stock

  1. Add the water, salt, pepper, and clove to the stewpan. Cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture.

Make and finish the gravy

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan. Stir in the flour. Cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the strained gravy to the stewpan. Stir until it boils.

  3. Skim the surface. Simmer for 10 minutes before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. 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 neck or shin
Gives the stock its meaty flavour and body as it cooks slowly.
Flour
Thickens the butter and gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the flour roux that thickens the gravy.
Dripping
Carries the browning of the meat and onion, adding savoury fat flavour.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma to the stock as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Frying the meat until brown. Browning creates deep savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale meat gives a flat, weak-tasting stock and gravy.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, onion, ham, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, onion, ham, 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.

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