Tasty gravy, just how?

[TwinsPlusAnotherOne]

Disclaimer. I can cook. Apart from two things which are always awful. Homemade curry. And gravy. And I'd love a good gravy for Christmas dinner.

I've tried Jamie's gravy (all those chicken wings what a bloody faff) and it was nothing more than ok. Tried shop bought from Cook, and it got binned it was so bad. Tried a Mary Berry one which called for cranberry jelly or something like that and it was wincingly sweet. And packet gravy, well, is packet gravy... although my best efforts have used this as a base, and added veg water and meat juices. Still really meh.

Let me into the secret please!

Wine?

Make a paste with veg water and flour and meat juices. Keep adding water til you have enough at right consistency. Add browning and / or a teaspoon of Marmite. Also - use the roasting dish on the job, not a saucepan. For some reason it stops it going lumpy.

On the hob

I was told this today. Put a dessert spoon of corn flower in a bit of water, mix to a paste. Add that, and some Bisto/gravy browning , to the meat juices. Then add veg water, as much as is needed.

Add flour to the pan fat / meat juices, kind of like a roux - then add wine (a good glass worth) and stir it all round to get the crusty bits off. Then add any more meat juices and some veg water - here’s where you can add one of those jelly stock cubes if you are low on meat juices. Let it all bubble and thicken.

You mention Christmas, so I’m assuming a roast meal. . . . Fat from roasting, make into a roux with plenty of plain flour, cook out til texture changes to sand, slacken off with water (preferably from cooking the veggies) and add stock (and wine if poss), bring back to simmer. You can add flavour with Marmite etc, but a good stock cube or 2 works really well, now I want a roast!!

Add some star anise, red currant jelly and lots of red wine.

I always add a small glass of wine/vermouth; flour; worcestershire sauce; blob of ketchup; blob of HP; smidge of mustard powder; salt and pepper. My gravy is delicious, so I have been told. I did make the Jamie gravy one year, but it tasted like soup - nice soup, but don't want soup on my dinner.

i make gravy with roast dinners… so stick chicken/beef in roasting tin with a couple of chopped up onions, maybe a clove or 2 of garlic and some herbs. Olive oil on top.

when meat cooked remove to rest. Take out onions (serve on side). Put a desert spoon of plain flour in, mix well snd cook for s minute. Add some wine or noilly prat if you’ve got it. Then chicken (or beef) stock. I usually make a pint with a knorr stock cube. Bubble for s few minutes. Make sure it’s seasoned. I sometimes add a dash of balsamic or Worcestershire sauce. Or if it’s lamb/beef sometimes a teaspoon of grape or redcurrant jelly.

What do you feel is wrong/ missing from the gravy?

I put about an inch of water in the dish with whatever meat I'm roasting, a dollop of redcurrant jelly, 2 stock cubes, some alcohol if I have it in - e.g cider with chicken/game/pork or a slosh of red wine with lamb or beef. Sprinkle salt over the top of the meat and roast.

when you bring the meat out to rest tip all the juices into a sauce pan and reduce if needed, add some cornflour that has been mixed with a little cold water to the boiling hot juices until it reaches your preferred thickness.

taste, and add a little more salt or redcurrant jelly/ mint sauce/ apple sauce as needed/ as appropriate.

delicious.

Onion can help make a tasty gravy. Putting thick slices of onion under your roast and then using those when you make the gravy. Obviously filter them out at the end. A drop of sherry or wine is also nice and Worcester sauce too as someone else said.

I just want my gravy to be like the meat juices, a tiny bit thicker in texture and a tiny bit boozy. So I separate the juices, use only that fat for the roux, tiny bit of flour, splash of dry sherry, then the (skimmed) juices back in. I put a quartered onion under the meat to roast til nearly burnt and stir that in too, as it does the colour and flavour better than adding browning (other than that onion I like to roast the veg in a separate tray)

You put your meat in the water? Or is it in the tray on a roasting rack and above the water?

My gravy misses thickness for sure, but that's because when I add flour, even if sieved, I just get little flour lump/balls, no matter how much I whisk.

If I'm really going to town on the gravy (like at Christmas) I make stock with old chicken/duck carcasses (stored in the freezer) and carrot, celery, onion, herbs etc. When the stock is finished I blend the veg into the stock. It thickens it, and yes it is virtually soup, but oh, so good.
Otherwise flour added to a bit of the fat & meat juices, add stock, veg water etc & adjust seasonings. I prefer to thicken with "sauce flour" but haven't been able to get it for a while. I am known as the queen of gravy so I must be going something right.

Are you adding the flour into a quantity of liquid? You should be adding it to a nearly empty roasting tin, with just some fat and a bit of residual meat juice / crusty bits in there. You stir it into the fat and heat it up like the start of making a white sauce, and you get a thick paste. Then gradually add wine / stock / veg water into that to make it more and more liquid. But you don’t ever add flour into a liquid.

You need to add flavour.

Cook the meat on a vegetable trivet.

Drain the fat off the meat juice

Put it on the hob on high and stir in some flour, as much as it will take, like making a roux. At this point I add a bottle of wine, slowly, red for beef, white for turkey or cider for pork. A couple of stock pots.

Mash up the trivet as much as you can.

Leave on the hob to boil offmost of the alcohol.

Season.

Add back in any of the resting juices.

Season again.

Pass through a sieve and squeeze as much of the trivet through as you can.

Scrape the stuff on the back of the sieve into the gravy, it's all flavour.

Voila. I always end up with way too much but freeze it for quick roasts.

If it's not great you can aways salvage gravy with a bit of bisto.

https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/lovely-home-made-gravy

Simple yet effective. Especially if you want to make it in advance before the meat is cooked.

Well fucketh me. Yes that's exactly what I'm doing. Like adding cocoa powder to a sauce, I sieve my flour in to the liquid.

It hadn't actually occurred to me that I was adding the flour at the wrong stage. That's embarrassing.

How much flour are we talking, for a standard roasting tray, if I was doing a normal sized joint for 4-6?

Bisto best plus add the juices. It's reasonably tasty and no hassle. I've made scratch gravy and it just not significantly better than the cheat way

Ps use cornflour slated in a little water to thicken it up, no lumps

Have you made a roux before? I'm crap with measurements so do it by eye / feel.

So drain the liquid (not sure why you need it for a roast?), and you'll have fat in the pan, stir in the flour and cook it out over the heat. (Uncooked flour is nasty), then add a small amount of liquid at a time continuously stirring. It will loosen and thicken and then you add more liquid. It might look like suit for a bit hit it will come together. Never add cold liquid to it, it will seize. Room temp.

Can you tell I LOVE gravy?!

Aha! Yes that would be it. And the flour / fat paste needs to cook around in the bottom of the pan for a bit (couple of minutes? before it starts to burn?) before adding the liquid - this adds flavour too. Probably a couple of dessert spoons of flour? And I should have said - if you’ve got loads and loads of fat, tip some out first. I’d tip some out for turkey but I never need to for chicken or lamb (unless v v fatty).

couple of pics attached for the sort of thing you’re looking for. Adding the liquid (mm wine) gradually and stirring it all smooth at each step stops the lumpiness. I don’t mind if it’s not perfectly smooth.

A couple of tablespoonfuls. Leave enough fat in to make a roux. You always need to cook flour before adding it to thicken sauces - it bursts the starch molecules or something. Otherwise it tastes of raw flour.

Separate the fat from the juices

Start with a roux made from the fat (and butter for nicer flavour) and flour. I like a dark roux.

Add in the juices and any additional flavourings - wine etc and simmer

The alternative is mixing cornflour with a bit of cold water and adding that into your liquid - that’s ok, cornflour is different. But I prefer the roux method as it incorporates the fat and converts it from floaty fat badness into tasty thickened gravy goodness.