Jamie Oliver's so-called "foolproof" gravy method

[LowLevelWhingeing]

I've only ever managed to make this work once.

He says to stand the roasting meat on a trivet of roughly chopped veg (carrots/onions/celery etc) then once the meat is cooked you remove it to rest and mash up the veg and juices as a basis for making gravy on the hob.

I have two problems with this:

1. The veg burns and goes bitter in the roasting pan-->nasty gravy

1. no juices meaning I have to basically make a gravy from stock/wine/granules

WHY??

I want to get this right in time for large number catering at Christmas...

I agree, it has never worked for me because of the veg going burnt and bitter.
On Sunday I made my best ever gravy just from the stuff in the roasting tin (beef had been smeared with garlic, salt and pepper but nothing else), a teaspoon of flour, lots of red wine and a little stock made from half a Kallo organic beef stock cube.

Not just me then!

Is that the gravy that includes the chicken wings mashed into it? DH makes that regularily and it's delish!

To be honest you would be better using the veg to make a good stock separately by gently frying/sweating up carrot, leek/onion, garlic, celery. Then add water, some concentrated beef stock and a bouquet garni of thyme, bay leaf and rosemary and leave to simmer for a hour or two while the meat roasts before passing the stock through a fine seive straight into the meat juices in the pan. Add wine and reduce.

Only thicken and add seasoning right at the end.

Skim off fat before putting stock in pan.

I would do the same as beta, but at christmas use the giblets to make the stock, and then add the juices from the turkey once cooked.

This way you can do a lot of the gravy in advance, which is the golden rule for christmas in my house.

I have tried a trivet of vegetables - it does depend what it is cooked in. It works fine in my old ceramic le crueset dish, but burns horrible in a metal pan.

burns horribly

If the veg is burning, try adding a glass or two of wine or just some water to it. This will reduce as the meat cooks and you will get the flavour from the veg and meat in the liquid.

I tried it with some water adding and it was ok but not amazing

'it does depend what it is cooked in. It works fine in my old ceramic le crueset dish, but burns horrible in a metal pan.'

aha.
I always wonder why chefs get it wrong, when they do. Like with Nigella and the brownies and she swore the cling film wouldn't melt and it turned out she always used extra special cheffy cling film and didn't realise there was any other kind.

I add water to the roasting tin during cooking. As long as you don't put too much in you get a nice rich gravy.

Yep that's absolutely it. Also why a lot of things stick when they probably aren't for the chef because they've got some super duper pan.

I also had issues with the cling film! Was Alistair Hendry & blind baking a tart for me, but same issue I suppose.

I tried putting some water in it, but obviously not enough...

I'm using a bog standard roasting pan, maybe I should invest in something more substantial. Except my new cooker is induction I'm limited as to which pans are compatible with the WITCHCRAFT hob

I'll practice doing the separate stock gravy then. We're probably having roast beef for Christmas dinner, so maybe I should get hold of some bones for make ahead gravy.

And why do I get hardly any juices?? Maybe the pans I use are too big?

Do you give your joint a nice long rest? A lot of the juices come out during the rest and then you tip them in at the end.

I suspect the idea of roasting the veg in the meat fat tin is really a short cut version of sweating the veg in a separate pan. In theory it should work but real chefs don't do it that way. They make a separate stock and add it to the meat juices - not just try to do it all in one pan. They roast of bones separately too and make a proper beef stock (without resorting to stock cubes) but it takes 24 hours and not feasible in an every day domestic kitchen.

Maybe if you added the veg about 30 mins before the end of roasting and kept stirring them every 5 mins it might work but its a lot of faff to do it that way.

Yes, use the smallest pan you can, if you use a great big one the juices will dry out anyway, and will tend to burn.

The stainless steel aircraft grade metal pans chefs use cost a bomb, tyhat is why I don't have any, and use the Le Creuset ceramic ones to roast everything in (they are not that expensive if you get them in an outlet store, and they last forever, or until some wazzock DP drops it). I think mine was about 20 quid.

I have got an induction hob and I love it - no mess, and you can leave a caserole cooking on the lowest heat for ages with no risk of burning (gas hobs never go low enough, and heat diffusers are a pita). Plenty of places sell induction pans, le creuest cast iron ones work very well.

Not seen the Jamie Oliver recipe but I put onions and carrots on the bottom of roasting pan then the beef and it never dries out or burns the veg. But I use the smallest roasting tin I possibly can for that bit of beef, and I have quite thick heavy stainless steel roasting tins that I have had for years.

I don't mush up the veg though just squeeze the juices out, add flour and then beef stock (I use the waitrose chiller cabinet beef stock as stock cubes and the like are too salty but home made beef stock is a step too far for me).

Thanks y'all!

So, I'm taking from this:

1. Small roasting dish
2. do the same principle in a separate pan in advance with good quality beef stock.

You need a heavy based pan - add a small amount of water - and don't bung the roast on top of the veg, just put it beside it.