Can you make a tasty gravy?

[winteroversummer]

A gravy to go with roast chicken, or pork, or beef, and if so, can you teach me how, please?

Do you use the drippings?

Or do you want an all purpose gravy like onion or mushroom?

Yes I use the drippings but always have to use granules too as I don't know another way

Well, you shouldn’t be making a one-size-fits-all gravy, but different gravy for different meats. But the principle is the same.

Drippings from the pan - skim off the fat and then use hot stock to loosen the delicious stuff off the bottom of the roasting pan (the better quality stock you have the better it will taste, but you can get away with a stock cube for whatever meat it is to match). Pour this into a pan, bring to boil. Add juices from roast meat that’s been resting. Mix up cornflour and water & dribble into the pan, stirring to thicken to your desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning. Done!

You can do fancy stuff like add alcohol or redcurrant jelly or whatever but once you can make the basics you can experiment.

I make fantastic gravy but it's a bit of a faff. I make my own meat stocks, use all the meat juices (very little fat as I have one of those brilliant fat splitters from Lakeland). Sauté chunks of carrot and onion first, deglaze with marsala wine, add bouquet garni, and keep the pot going all morning adding in the various veg stocks from the veg. Thicken with cornflour and half a teaspoon of bisto powder.

I use milk now in chicken gravy, it's gorgeous. It's nicked from biscuits & gravy, US Southern food.

Add marmite. To any gravy, for any meat. Not much, a teaspoon of.
That's how I make it super tasty anyway. My mum and her mum before her did so it's just what I do!

Heat the juices in the pan (drain off any excess fat if there is any), add flour and cook for a minute then add stock, I use Kallo ones with a bit of Oxford sauce added.

I do then add a bit of the low salt granules if it needs more thickening

But how do you skim off the fat? That's where I'm going wrong

I always chuck a little water in the bottom of the roasting pan at the start of cooking a roast to help the meat juices stay wet.

When the meat and potatoes are out being kept warm i sprinkle a tablespoon or two of flour into the pan and stir it all around gathering up the juices and the bits of roast potato or whatever which have stuck.

I have pre made a jug of:

• cup or 2 of cold water
• 1 or 2 (depending on how much gravy you need) oxo cubes stirred in (beef for beef and pork, chicken for chicken, lamb for lamb)
• plus a good shake of bisto powder.

Stir it again just before you use this mix as it settles.

Tip this mixture into your floury potato'y meaty pan and stir it all up well. Don't put heat under the pan yet. Sometimes it's almost a paste sometimes it's quite runny depending on how much meat juice there was.

When it's all mixed up i take the vegetable draining water and pour some in and mix that in. Then get the pan on the hob and stir and as the mixture thickens i add more veg water while it's boiling and keep stirring until it's the thickness we like.

I will taste and add a bit of salt and pepper while it's cooking. Takes about 5 mins to cook the flour down. Tip it all in your jug and off you go :)

I cook for a lot of people so need 2/3 pints of gravy which is why i use 2 oxo cubes, but this method can be used to make any amount you like. 1 cube is probably ok for a pint of gravy or less.

I never skim off the fat! Flavour!

The flour/potato bits soaks it up.

@NorthernNic

But how do you skim off the fat? That's where I'm going wrong

The fat separating jugs are brilliant.

But you can also just transfer to a measuring jug, let it settle and the fat will rise to the top. Then use a spoon to skim off the fat (I put kitchen roll in a jam jar and put the fat in there.)

You need one of these to remove the fat. It's a brilliant piece of kit.
www.lakeland.co.uk/26364/Lakeland-Gravy-Fat-Skimmer-Jug-with-Strainer-500ml

The only time i ever skim off fat is if i'm cooking a duck.

Put root vegetables under which meat you are cooking. Add suitable herbs for whichever meat you are cooking (and for chicken, I just do onion, lemon, garlic and either thyme or tarragon).

Roast meat.

When it’s done, remove everything from the roasting tim and skim off the fat. Add the non-fat and cooked, pulpy vegetables back to the pan (with all the knarly bits still in there). Cool over a medium heat on the hob. Add a splash of water if necessary to loosen.

Add tablespoon of flour and stir till a paste comes together. Add splash of wine and stir more.

Add hot stock by the ladle, stir to get rid of lumps. Repeat till you have the consistency of gravy you require. I often let it simmer here for a while. Season. Add Worcestershire Sauce (if it’s not a chicken gravy).

Pass it through a sieve to remove any residual lumps or bits of vegetable. Keep warm on the job till you need it (I always make far more than I need and freeze for those times you can’t be arsed).

*cook over w medium heat. Not cool!!

Easy cider gravy for pork

thescottishbutcher.com/recipes/cider-gravy-for-pork/

Boiling hot water stirred into gravy granules. I win...don't I?!

I use the meat juices, and if I have water from the veg (Cauliflower probably) I use that, otherwise I use a veg stock cube to get all the lovely crusty bits off the bottom of the roasting tray.

I thicken the gravy with a bit of leftover Yorkshire Pudding batter, and use Compton gravy salt to add a bit of flavour and colour.

It's delicious.

I do similar to yellowandgreen following roughly a Gordon Ramsay method.

So put in the same tray as your chicken/ beef a carrot, a potato and a parsnip and half a red onion (or any root veg you have knocking around)

Whilst the chicken is cooking reduce down some port or red wine - maybe around 150ml. Add in some chicken or beef stock depending on the meet and reduce a bit more

When the chicken is cooked take it out to rest, deglaze the roasting dish with your port/ wine and mash the veg in the pan. Add the stock/port mixture and mix it all up.

Pass the gravy through a sieve

Pour drippings into a container.

Deglaze pan with some wine.

Throw in some fat and some flour and cook up a nice paste. If you don’t get enough fat from the drippings, add butter at this stage.
Now start working the drippings back in with a coated whisk so you don’t damage your pan.
Once it’s all come together nicely, consider pulling some out, letting it cool a bit and mixing in some cream for a richer gravy.

If it starts to go wrong and doesn’t taste right adding a shit load of salted butter or wine seems to sort most gravies

My mum could when I was a child but when I try her method it ends up much too fatty. I don't think she skims fat off but I'm no good at it anyway. I think I need one of those magic jugs.

The Jamie Oliver make ahead Christmas gravy was a success but is too complicated.

I fry chopped onion in fat or oil, let it simmer for five minutes, then thicken with a bit of flour, stirring all the time. Add some Oxo cube stock and a bit of Worcester sauce, bring to boil - job done!

Take meat out of roasting tin and skim off excess fat, but make sure there is some still in the tin. I also have one of those Lakeland jugs, but sometimes just pour off the excess fat into a mug.

Put tin directly onto the hob, add flour and make a paste with the fat, scraping to make sure you incorporate all the yummy bits.

Gradually start adding stock, stirring as you go so you don't get lumps (in the same way that you would make any sauce from a roux). I make up the stock using Marigold Bouillon powder and a small amount of hot water, plus wine if I happen to have any spare. I then add additional water from any veg I happen to be boiling, until the consistency is right, and leave to keep warm, chucking in the juices from the resting meat at the last minute.

I sometimes put root vegetables under the joint and use the method others have described but then you have to blend and/or sieve and I usually can't be bothered with that.