What's your secret to the perfect gravy?

[PMTvsPMA]

I want to steal it!

go to MIL's

Ok, this is not posh gravy, but is lush and makes loads, which is what matters in our house :
Save the water you have parboiled your spuds in.
Mix 2 or 3 tablespoons of Bisto to a runny paste with cold water.
Drain almost all of the fat from your meat roasting tin and put it on hot hob. Chuck in about half a glass of cheap red wine and scrape away at the bottom of the tin while it bubbles.
Pour in your spud water. Get it to a vigorius boil, then gradually pour in the Bisto paste, stirring with a mini whisk thingy as you pour to stop it going lumpy. Hungry now....

meat juices with cornflour mixed in

secret is add all the veggie water and meat juices.

either do it properly, from scratch with giblets etc or if you have to use instant, go for bisto best.

adding a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard makes gravy posher too.

Cook roast with carrot, celery and onion on base. Remove these before making gravy. Spoon away most of fat from roasting tin, leave 2 tbspns or so. Add one-one and half heaped tbspn plain flour and mix to paste. Scrape, scrape all the bits off the bottom. Slowly add saved potato water mixing all the time. Once all liquid added heat slowly.

When you've finished roasting your joint, remove all but a tablespoon and a bit of the fat. Stir in about a heaped dessert spoon of plain flour and cook over a gentle heat for a couple or three minutes, scraping any of the yummy bits from the bottom and side. Pour in half a glass of red and stir in well, followed by the potato water - maybe 3/4 - 1 pint, stirring all the time until it's all blended. Add a tsp marmite and simmer gently for 10 minutes, checking seasoning. Just before everything is ready, drain the meat juices into the gravy.

Tip the roasting tin a few times during cooking and keep the juices - you need a bit of the fat but if there's loads get rid of some. When your joint is cooked, shift it out of the tin and wrap in tinfoil. Put tin on the hob, stir a tablespoon or so of flour into the fat/juices left there - if you have lumps don't worry, just add some of the fat/stuff you've reserved. Gradually stir in a glass of wine - white for chicken, red for beef/lamb. Then some stock - I use the Swiss Marigold Bouillon stuff, which is like magic. Season, etc. If it's beef I'll add some dijon mustard. Boil and stir and scrape all the stuff off the bottom of the pan like a madwoman. If it's still lumpy - that's why sieves were invented. Decant into a warmed jug when you're ready.

• that is drain the meat juices that have seeped out when the joint is resting iyswim.

Cook the meat on vegetable trivet - carrot, red onion, whatever.
I use plain flour rather than cornflour with meat juices, and then add the veg water.

Mush up the veg with a hand blender and add to the gravy (seive it out later).
If I need more meaty flavour I stick an oxo in. I usually use some wine, and I always add some redcurrant jelly and a bit of mint sauce for added flavour.

I am northern, so my main secret is to make loads.

I'm amazed by how little flour some people use. A tablespoon? I use tons more than that. But as I said earlier, I do make bloody loads of gravy.

Thank you everyone, I'm gonna try out some of your ideas.

Except Stealths MIL one

My 'secret' is a Gravy Skimmer Jug I've decided. :) Season the meat well, roast high for the first 20 mins then at a lower heat for the rest of the time, adding plenty of oil or butter in the case of leaner meats and basting as you go. Then remove the meat carefully from the roasting tin and allow to rest. Tip the contents of the roasting tin - juice, fat, scrapings and everything - into the gravy skimmer, plus anything that comes off the meat as it's resting, and all the fat will rise to the top. Return a few tablespoons of the separated fat to the roasting tin, place on the hob, and blend with some plain flour until you have a smooth paste, bubbling a little round the edges. Then carefully pour the meat juices into this paste, leaving the rest of the fat behind, stirring constantly. Finally, get your gravy to the right consistency by adding a little vegetable cooking water and/or some wine.

At the end I put in a tablespoon of Red Currant Jelly (warmed in m/w)