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Gravy for Fowls

A simple gravy made with lean beef, butter, flour, onion, and boiling water.

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

Gravy for Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the base

  1. Slice and score the beef.

  2. In a stew-pan, add the beef, butter, flour, and onion.

  3. Stir over the fire for 10 minutes.

Simmer and strain

  1. Pour in the boiling water and skim carefully.

  2. Boil together for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture and serve.

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

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

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Lean beef
Supplies the meaty flavour that the liquid carries into the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the flour cook smoothly.
Flour
Thickens the liquid once it is added, giving the gravy body.
Onion
Adds aroma and a mild sweetness as it softens in the pan.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the butter and beef. Stirring keeps the flour moving so it cooks evenly and does not scorch or clump. Cooking out the flour removes its raw taste and prepares it to thicken the liquid properly when the water is added.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

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