Right - I want to know how many of you make your own gravy when you cook a roast dinner

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

I just can't make home-made gravy. DH can, it's lovely and thick and tasty and we use the same method.

I'm not keen on using Bisto. Only for stretching home made gravy out to go further. On it's own it just tastes fake and has a wierd texture, to me.

So come on, own up. If you do a roast for just your immediate family, what type of gravy do you make?

I want to make homemade gravy, I really, really do...but whenever I add flour, the flour just goes into white lumps and all stickers together. So I end up with a runny meat-water and lumps of flour.

So I just use tescos own bisto. And stick the meat juices in that!

Clash - add cornflour. You mix the cornflour with a little cold water to make a runny paste. Then add that. Don't just add the flour straight into hot as will be lumpy bits as mentioned

Ahaaa...

I tried asking my mum, but it turns out that the secret to her home made gravy was......a teaspoon of instant mash potato flakes to thicken...

I made delicious homemade gravy and Yorkshire puds today .

Add flour to the fat in the pan and gradually add water and a stock cube . When doing chicken I add a little of bisto best to add colour.

i use the roasting tin...meat out, tip out any excess fat over the roasties

add in some, juice/wine/beer to scrape the gubbins off the bottom of the tin, then drain some/all of the veg water into the tin as it all gets done...keep stirring and tasting, sometimes a little mustard or worcestercercercerchireerere sauce, sometimes a squeeze of ketchup, or a splash of balsamic

I generally thicken with cornflour as already described, or if i am making yorkies swill the thin gravy round the batter jug and back in the tin with it. Also instant mash is a great way to thicken.

Homemade all the way BUT to the poster whose gravy is fatty - is that when you are cooking chicken? Because I didn't really get how fatty chicks juices were for a long time (dm was bisto all the way and I was veggie for years). For chicken, I chuck 90% of the roasting juices out - that's all fat. Then add the flour, scrape everything up, cook out a bit. Then add white wine (or maybe marigold stock if no white wine around), the juice from the hot lemon inside the chicken, season and bubble up. Easy.

For all other meats same principle but I keep all the pan juices as I usually use leaner meat.

Home made.

I used to make it in the roasting tin, but I can't do that with my induction hob, so I have to deglaze the pan and do it all in a saucepan.

I normally go with some Bisto or similar. But sometimes I make onion gravy, which I find much easier than separating the fat from the meat juice.

Home-made onion and red wine gravy, but if it comes out too pink I add a teaspoon of Bisto for the colour.

Pure Bisto gravy is foul, all salt and chemicals.

Homemade every time.

And if it needs seasoning I use soy sauce/tamari instead of salt as it adds to the colour.

I make gravy with the roasting tin and flour and stock saved from the veg. If I've added onions to the roast all the better, to give extra colour.

Lonny - it was chicken gravy I was trying to make tonight. I thought I'd got loads of fat out of the pan leaving just meat juices, but there was definitely a layer of fat on the final jug of gravy. I smeared butter over the chicken before it went in the oven - is that the problem? I was then left with too much fat and not enough chicken juices?

Usually home made.

it's better if I throw some onion/carrot/celery into the roasting tin with the meat, plus a little boiling water - the veg acts as a trivet. If there's really not enough juices, then I'll extend with some good quality stock, but I never use bisto.

I steamed our broccoli, cauli and asparagus too, so no veg water to make my stock up with. Maybe that didn't help either.

I put a pan in the fridge, while the meat is cooking, btw, if it's likely to be fatty, like chicken or lamb, then once the juices have cooled a little pour them into the pan and put them in the fridge. With chicken, the juices set and youu can pour/spoon the worst of the fat off. With lamb, the fat goes rock hard, quite quickly and is easy to pick off.

This is only possible because I rest my meat for about an hour, mind.

Leave some fat in the roasting tin, add the flour, about a dessert spoon, or less if there isn't much fat, then you gently cook the flour in the fat (as you would cook it in butter for a cheese sauce), then slowly add the stock (oxo or knorr for chicken), if it's too runny add cornflour (blended with some water). Scrape all the bits off the roasting tin, boil up for a bit. Done.

You don't want the flour swimming in fat, nor do you want the flour dry, you want to cook it to a sort of paste (which only takes a few mins).

Oh, and add any meat juices to the gravy.

I make onion gravy (nigella recipe) for a proper Sunday roast. For a midweek quick roast I just use instant. We all prefer the home made though.

Nope. After many failed attempts I use Bisto or the individual sachets. Bisto and Schwartz do lovely ones.

I have a small oven so while the meat is resting I cook the potatoes, parsnips and Yorkshire puddings, which is all my oven can fit. Then veg on the hob towards the end. Faffing with gravy as well is something I'm happy to do without.

But if you make home made gravy with meat juices, don't you just end up with about four tablespoons of gravy? I can never get a decent quantity out of mine.

Also, resting your meat for an hour??! How do you get it hot again to eat without it going tough and overcooked?

You put it in a warm oven (if you have two) or wrap it up in foil (can add a towel too). Works best for larger joints and involves slightly changing the cooking times too. Resting meat makes a huge difference to how tender it is.

To be honest if I was rubbish at gravy and my dh was great I'd just get him to do it (dh makes a great roast but can't do gravy so I do it). Bisto and other instants taste really nasty to me, given the choice I'd rather have no gravy than Bisto as I think it makes the whole meal taste nasty. Having said that with chicken I just use the juices, I only make thick gravy for beef/lamb/pork.

I used to deglaze pans with wine, strain this & that, whisk flour into things, and got delicious gravy most of the time. Now I add onion gravy granules to the pan, which is a hell of a lot easier & cheaper.

XH2 was brilliant at traditional gravy. In your situation, OP, I'd just get DH to do it. Sorted :)

That was exactly my problem with chicken gravy OP, now I get rid of everything except around a tablespoon of liquid. My aim is for that to be juices, but I accept some of it will be fat. Then add a good tablespoon of flour to that, maybe even more, you want the flour to be enough to thoroughly hold the fat in suspension (completely made up science, but I know what I mean!). Then add your fat free liquid, ie water, wine or stock.

I always roast my veg (oven is on anyway so don't see the point of having a pan on) so either use Marigold stock or just kettle water and wine.