Do any of you add other things to a jug of bisto?

[Indecisivejo]

I love gravy but my other half doesn't like bisto, he likes proper home made gravy with stock and peppercorns etc but I haven't got time to faff for evening meals I just want to add hot water to bisto lol. Is there anything I could add to give it a twist? Maybe Tom purée or Worcestershire sauce etc??

The question marks were supposed to be sad faces but it seems Mumsnet can't cope with emojis!!

I agree Bisto gravy granules aren't that great.
Aldo's own make are far better

Thanks Artandco!

Regular bisto/powdered gravy is minging on its own. I'd rather eat the food dry.

I do, however use it for thickening a sloppy lasagne/cottage pie mince etc.

Sometime I thicken proper gravy with it.

I spend hours making my gravy. Tis a thing of beauty!

I always add a sprinkle of sage and onion stuffing mix, yum. I want a Sunday lunch now!

I use bisto - both the red pot and the jars and I use sachets and sometimes the M&S stuff in jars. For a roast I use juices and wine and then add bisto. I am a bit about the bisto snobbery. It's gravy not a life's work and no there is no way it is the work of a minute to make a proper onion gravy.

Hideous black gloop for people who are scared/dont know how to make proper flavoursome gravy, it just is sorry.

Nothing snobby,just the truth!

Thanks Artandco sounds good!

Hideous black gloop

Sounds as if you could do with more water, it's not meant to be gloop.

Another Marsala fan here, makes a great gravy.
I've also tried those stockpot cartons and they're not bad.

Yup, i cook from scratch and yup it is black, tasteless gloop and if cooking makes me snobby then i must be!

I am amazed at this thread too. I'm 37 and can count on one hand the amount of times I've had "proper" gravy in my life. Far too much faff. Bisto all the way here!

And for those of you who said you have never used oxo cubes, how do you make soup? Surely you don't go too all the trouble of making homemade stock every time you fancy making soup?

There's far too much food snobbery around basic food ingredients that save busy parents time and energy in the kitchen. Using Bisto gravy or a tin of chopped tomatoes with a couple of teaspoons of curry powder is a world away from eating ready meals and takeaways every day.

by the way, Waitrose now stock proper gravy browning

I make proper gravy with our Sunday roast but for midweek bangers n mash sort of thing I use a gravy paste called Maysan which our local butchers sell. Its very easy to make, just dissolve in water and boil and you can make it really thick. It's not as good as the real thing but better that Bisto.

I'm going to get a roasting here but even worse than Bisto.....we use Aldi gravy! Real stuff is for Christmas only in this house.

I cook from scratch too and my bisto is never black or gloopy .

Did all the Bisto lovers grow up eating it? Because I suspect from this thread that it might be one if those tastes which you have to have formed when young to fully appreciate. I didn't have it growing up, and it tastes rank to me. But then there are plenty of other things that I did eat as a child which I really like but suspect are just as disgusting to someone who didn't grow up on them, like tinned tomato soup. DP looks at me in horror when I make the French trashy convenience food of my youth. Actually, just writing this thread has giving me a strong desire for tinned petits pois with carrots.

Bisto powder is heavenly but you need to use stock not water. I pour hot water over meat, cover in foil and in the oven for 30 mins; pour off the fluid and let it cool - this fluid contains lovely meat flavour and 'bits' which when cooled is then used as the liquid to add the powder - always had raving compliments.

Granules are the work of the devil!

The jars of Bisto granules are a good base. Just add meat juices etc. E.g. I make lovely pork medallions with balsamic, herbs, honey and lemon juice. It makes a lovely gloopy sauce, then I mix some Pork gravy Bisto granules and water and chuck it in the pan with the sauce. The Bisto pads it out.

I read this thread earlier while eating my dinner but didn't have time to post. Too busy bolting my food. My dinner was chicken drumsticks roasted with the standard side dishes etc etc & Bisto gravy.

I have one of the big red pots (of doom!). Tonight I used veg water to make up the gravy, then deglazed the roasting dish with it having drained off all the fat, but left the yummy bits on the bottom which I scraped off into the gravy. My 2 DCs love my gravy, one tries to drink it out of the jug! :)

I am amazed at the gravy snobbery. Yes Bisto needs a little something adding, I loved some of the suggestions earlier, but some of us don't have the time or inclination to arse around making proper gravy before doing a late shift at work.

Pour a bit of wine/dry sherry/port and stock made up from a cube in the roasting tray midway through cooking, and the juices will be better than any Bisto concoction.

I don't like the granules but there is a paste in a tube that is tolerable.

My own is infinitely better.

I didn't grow up with packet gravy.

DP did and moans if there isn't any.

I think it's just different approaches. If you didn't grow up with bisto, then you're probably not really going to get on board with it later in life, especially if you've always just made the gravy yourself.

I don't see that it's a faff. OK, it takes marginally longer than bisto, but it's not that much of a short-cut to my mind, to ever use it.