Gravy

[Christmasgravy]

I know IABU posting here!

Please tell me how you make your Turkey gravy?
I use the juices/scrapings from the pan, mix with cornflour and veg water but that's where it begins to go wrong.

Oxo chicken too sweet
Knorr chicken too salty (even low salt one)
Kallo are flavourless.

What do you (or even restaurants) use to make gallons of gorgeous gravy?

I thought I'd try Swartz Turkey gravy mix but it has thyme added and a strange taste!

Please help!

Jamie's Get Ahead Gravy, just done mine for this year. Always very tasty. I always do roast meat on a bed of onions celery carrot garlic and then mash down with veg water or homemade stock. Also Jamie's method.
Have got in the habit of making a stock everytime I roast a chicken now and always have some in the freezer, makes such a difference to sauces and gravies.

Has anyone tried M&S chicken stock? I have some to try today.

I'm currently cooking TWO chickens so will boil up the bones.

(DH said he'd buy the 'wrong' chicken so I should get it - Both arrived back with one....)
He's probably right. I'm a fussy bugger. His will probably be nicer

You need Maggi Liquid Seasoning OP. It's amazing in gravy, soup, roast potatoes...actually it's a little miracle bottle of tasty goodness ☺️ (anyone who has lived in Germany will vouch for this...it's a cupboard staple 👍 🇩🇪 )



Ahh! Didn't attach...try again...

Northern
If my gravy/stock experiment today fails, that will be my next step! 😂

From top to bottom/ left to right:

M&S stock pouch (the white thing floating is fat I think!!)

Kallo low salt chicken stock cubes

Oxo chicken

Knorr chicken

The only one that is rejected already is Knorr. Just tastes of salt.

Some of the TV chefs seem to go in for roasting a batch of chicken wings specially for gravy, then adding herbs, veg, vegetable water, seasoning etc. (I think Jamie Oliver has done it this way and possibly Nigella Lawson). I haven't tried it myself but sounds as though you would get plenty of flavour. No time to search now but I'd be surpised if there wasn't something on the BBC website.

I won't put my gravy recipe on here, lest there be an almighty ruckus over gravy, lol, just like in the story below ( which had me giggling for hours ! HOW could anyone get so upset about gravy ! )

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7791913/Woman-35-charged-assault-heated-fight-gravy.html

DP makes fab gravy. I put the roast in with a quartered onion and garlic cloves underneath, also some carrots. Once the meat is done he removes it, adds boiling water and scrapes the pan so all the caramelised bits go in a saucepan.
Add a tablespoon of Marigold powder and a pint of water, stir in some cornflower. Add a swig of good red wine and a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly. It's fabulous.

I hate all stock cubes and similar.

As soon as I get the turkey, I take out the giblets etc, and use them to make a stock with carrot onion & celery, bay leaves, & other herbs, salt & pepper. Then I add white wine and reduce it by about half.
I fry a chopped onion till well browned, add some garlic, add to giblet stock.
Collect bird/pan juices while bird is resting, add to giblet stock with a good glass of red wine/sherry/Madeira and a spoon of redcurrant jelly.

Simmer everything well together, thicken slightly with cornflour or butter&flour balls, adjust seasoning, continue to simmer until required.

Ok. So lunch has been eaten!

Chicken/gravy results are in!

Chicken 1
M&S 'Oakham' chicken produced a dark brown bitter residue at the bottom of the pan and was unsuitable for gravy. Threw it away. Chicken was ok if a bit bland.

Chicken 2
Tesco organic /corn fed produced gorgeous, sticky, amber stuff which when mixed with OXO chicken stock cubes, veg stock & cornflour.
Very tasty chicken & gravy 🐓

OXO & Tesco organic wins!

Thank you for all your tips! I'm going to try a few of them! Especially wine/onion .

nowayhose

Crikey!! 😂😂

I won't put my gravy recipe on here, lest there be an almighty ruckus over gravy, lol, just like in the story below ( which had me giggling for hours ! HOW could anyone get so upset about gravy ! ) I shall show that to DH as a reminder of the perils of Not Making Enough Gravy.

Another shout out for Jamie Oliver get ahead gravy. I've done it the past few years now. Going to make it this week.

Roasting pan scrapings and veg steamer water into Bisto Best Onion, here. If I'm feeling fancy I'll do onions (cut large) or mushrooms (cut tiny) fried up and in it too.

The day before, I take the giblets out of the turkey and simmer them for at least an hour with some onion, carrot and celery. Maybe a sage leaf too.

On the day I make gravy in the roasting tin, having poured most of the fat off. I mix in some flour, cook gently for a minute or two, then gradually add the giblet stock. To brown and season and thicken a bit more, I mix a little Bisto powder (not the granules) with water, add and boil it all up for a minute or two.
Taste and add salt if needed.
Sounds a faff, but it really isn't.
Our dog and cat used to really enjoy the boiled up giblets (though not the neck with the bone) but since they're both now RIP they usually go out in the garden for Fred the fox.

Make a roux, it takes seconds. Then add the juices and hot water until it's the thickness you want. Do not use cornflour.

Make sure you pack a load of veg under the turkey to roast and make the gravy juices.

Or if you want to make it more chickeny, pressure cook a whole chicken carcass (after your sunder lunch) for 4hrs and then reduce the liquid down, so it sets in the fridge to a pint of proper thick bone broth jelly.

Oh also sometimes I add thyme to the pressure cooker.

I'm a decent cook, but I cannot for the life of me make good gravy.

Luckily I have DH, who was taught brilliantly by MIL & makes the best gravy ever. And no, I haven't a clue how he does it I must actually watch & learn next time.

My family like ‘fruity gravy’
For turkey I mix cranberry jelly, Sherry and garlic - pour over bird 1/2 an hour before end of cooking
Then use juices of bird plus the above with water to mix with bistro turkey granules

Meat juices
Plain flour and an oxo cube - chicken or veg. Maybe a bit of gravy granules.
Hot water or veg water if I’ve used it - quite often steam so don’t have it.

• balsamic vinegar gives great flavour and a brill tang. Always use it
• HP sauce for sausage gravy
• cranberry or recurrent sauce (and a tiny splash of balsamic) to go with turkey

I also scrape out the remainder of the stuffing, bits of chicken/turkey, basically any little crispy bits or whatever. Then I use a stick blender.

We’re a ‘spoon standing up’ gravy thickness family

All this chat of stirring in flour /cornflour, do you just sprinkle it in? Or do a paste first? Then slowly add it?

Make a roux, it takes seconds. Then add the juices and hot water until it's the thickness you want. Do not use cornflour.

^
OK... Why not cornflour?

A witness said the two women, who were both in their 30s, began exchanging words at the gravy station section of the restaurant over queue jumping, before a fully fledged argument broke out.

^

Sorry