to have just shouted "BISTO IS NOT PROPER GRAVY!" at the TV?

[LifeIsButtercream]

I may be a little on edge as I am watching last night's One Born Every Minute, and a touch emotional, but an advert just came on that made me shout.....

The new Bisto one, kids promising to behave in return for "one night a week to have a proper dinner with the family, with proper gravy".

It grates on me because once a week seems painfully few meals with the family (even if I'm not eating at the same time as my DD for some reason, I sit with her at the table for company). Also Bisto is not 'proper gravy' - call me a food snob but its granules, and (disclaimer - last time I checked) full of weird stuff. Its easier just to chuck the roasting juices in a pan with a little flour and some potato water/wine etc and simmer for a few mins.

I know some people don't enjoy cooking and I'm lucky that I do, and there is nothing wrong with using Bisto BUT its not 'proper' gravy., is it?

I may be a little irrational, I apologise in advance!

[luckybuddah]

YANBU Bisto = brown water!

[taintedpaint]

Yes, YABU, but quite funny too. :)

Gravy is just gravy isn't it?....nothing to shit bricks over.

[FiveFeetTwo]

brown salty water

[LifeIsButtercream]

Massive PHEW that I was not pelted with biscuits! Thank you peeps. In a way I know IABU, and arsey, but at least I now feel less so!

[propercrimbo]

I said exactly the same thing!! ha ha YANBU!

[supersewer]

totally agree!!

[lagerlout]

I do what you do with the roasting juices, veg water etc but I still use the old fashioned original bisto in the brown cardboard box to colour and thicken, there isn't really any flavour from it. Is this not proper gravy either????

[brimfull]

it's quite nice thought

so is homemade

who gives a stuff

[nickelbabysnatcher]

YABU.
Bisto is the only gravy.

[nickelbabysnatcher]

(and it's veggie)

[TrillianAstra]

Bisto is yummy. You need to put in more granules than it says.

[TrillianAstra]

And it's all very well to faff about with roasting juices but what if you are having sausage and mash and there aren't any?

[SacharissaCripslock]

I shouted that too!

But I still love Bisto anyway, proper or not.

[jaffacake79]

YANBU at all, and once a week to sit down as a family for a "proper" meal is pitiful!

[ILoveFrogs]

'Its easier just to chuck the roasting juices in a pan with a little flour and some potato water/wine etc and simmer for a few mins. '

Easier than boiling a kettle and pouring it into a jug with some granuals?

YANBU, Bisto is horrible and the advert is beyond annoying!

[GrimmaTheNome]

YANBU.

Proper gravy is as you say.

I remember in my school Dom Sci 'gravy browning' being listed as an ingredient for beef stew. Our bottle was nearly empty and my mum assured me it really wasn't necessary to put caramel colouring in a stew. I was quite gobsmacked to find all my classmates turned up with bisto powder which was evidently what the teacher expected.


eh? was that some strange Essex perversion unsuspected by my Lancastrian mother?

[luckybuddah]

I'd say thats proper gravy lagerlout!
Its just gravy made with a spoon of bisto mixed with pints of water in a measuring jug that i think tastes of nothing IMO

[GMajor7]

Anothe veggie who likes Bisto here! I make sure I can stand the spoon up in it though

[Serendippy]

It was the 'proper gravy' bit that got me. I have no objection to bisto and use it, but do not think of it as proper homemade gravy. In the same way that there is a time and a place for smash but it should not be referred to as 'proper mash'.

[LifeIsButtercream]

Agreed Serendippy - 100%

Thats what I meant - there is nothing wrong with using Bisto but it is not proper gravy

I get my gravy to darken if the roasting juices are pale by melting a little butter, stirring equal amount of flour into it and cooking it for a min or so and it darkens. Then chuck juices in.

[emmanana]

I was at BIL one Christmas, and offered to help. BIL asked if I could make the gravy, as he always enjoyed mine. Went to the loo to wash my hands , came back to see his OH draining all the beef juices from the pan down the sink 'I'll just get rid of this muck' and he hands me a jug, and a drum of bisto....

[Malificence]

Bisto is foul - however, Morissons gravy
granules make the best gravy ever, but only if you use the meat juices and the water from the potatoes.

Everyone comments on how great my gravy is.

[emmanana]

Must admit to sticking the kettle on when DH goes to the chippy though - nothing like bisto gravy with chip shop chips.... Our local chinese used to sell 'Chips and Gravy' as a dish. They used to put the chips in the container, then pour the gravy over before putting the lid on.

[BusyMissIzzy]

YANBU. I use Bisto, mind you, but I wouldn't call it 'proper' gravy.