by Ian H » Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:25 am
Well well,
Something I actually know something about! I don't cook Turkey (sorry all your Thanksgiving day traditionalists), but I make gravy with all the other meats that I roast. I never use Bisto or any other "gravy granules" which in my view make a brown goo that looks approximately like gravy, but has a samey overlay of flavour no matter what meat you have roasted. I've been making my own gravy in this way for 50 years, so most things that can go wrong have gone wrong for me!
So for my money, a gravy should be there primarily to enhance and complement the meat you are roasting. While it should be thickened, it shouldn't be "stand a spoon up" thick, nothing like. n my view it's better to have one too thin than too thick (but that's merely my opinion. Ideally, nearly all the flavour in a gravy should come from the meal you are serving, so meat fat, meat juices and possibly some of the water in which you may have boiled or parboiled vegetables if there's aren't quite enough pan juices. If you use meat that's been very well hung (stop sniggering) then evaporation of liquids from the interior of the meat (loses 10% of its weight per week's hanging) will tend to reduce the amount leaching out during the roasting process, and if you roast hot, what little does come out can burn and caramelise, so you will need to take steps to be able to use the meat juices later - a little red (for beef, lamb/mutton & furred game) or white (pork, most poultry, veal) wine will tend to prevent too much caramelisation taking place, even water or stock are better than nothing. By the way "fond" is exactly the same as the English word stock made to sound chic by frenchifying it. Keep an eye on what's happening in the pan during roasting, so that your meat juices don't burn.
When the meat has finished cooking, it will be put in a warmish place to rest for up to 20 minutes for a small joint and even up to an hour for a large one. During that time, some juices can come out, pour off keep them aside to add to the gravy. Technically, it is this juice pouring out of a large roast which should be called jus in french. Nothing else.
Now to start making the gravy proper. You need to make a roux, but you can't do this if you have a lot of water based meat juices present under the fat, so...take the roasting pan, assuming it is sufficiently sturdy to be heated over the hob, and examine the juices. If there are a lot, pour off the lot from the pan, deglaze the roasting pan with a little wine (add wine, (stock\water for those who can't/won't cook with wine) and add these to the pan residue. Continue making the gravy in a saucepan as it's a lot less cumbersome. If there are only a couple of tablespoons of juices with the fat, then it's probably best to reduce that to a glaze by heating the pan on the hob while whisking all the time to prevent it spattering. You don't want to burn them all the same. When the liquids have reduced to a goo, you will be able to deal with the fat, just as you will if the pan juices had gone dry towards the end of the roasting. You may find you need to remove some of the fat ( AKA the drippings). In principle, you need roughly the same weight of fat as flour, and it takes about 1/2 oz flour to thicken 1/2 pint of liquid, so depending upon how much gravy you're going to want, you need to try to work out roughly how much fat to use/leave in the pan. If you had a lot of liquid and poured the lot out of the pan, then you'll make a better gravy if you separate fat and juice, and put as much fat as you need in a saucepan.
Either way, heat the fat and when fairly hot (not smoking) add enough flour to make a good roux. If you're making the gravy in the roasting pan, you will need to use a wire whisk to incorporate all the crusty bits/ glaze into the roux. I sometimes like to put in a tsp or so of brown sugar which will caramelise a bit and deepen the colour. Anyway, when you get the pan residues incorporated into the roux as best you can, without burning anything, whisk in whatever liquid you're using. It may be the cooking liquid from vegetables, or meat juices, or if you don't have either, some stock. I tend to try to make some simple stock from the trimmings of whatever I'm roasting. Chicken giblets, wing tips etc for a chicken, the excess bones from lamb etc. They are boiled up and simmered while the meat is roasting. Some extra wine does no harm. The more flavoursome this liquid is, the better the gravy. Continue heating and stirring, and bring to the boil. Turn down and simmer while carrying out the seasoning. If there were few pan juices, and you don't have either veg cooking juices or stock, you'll have had to use something for flavour and a tin of broth is better than using a stock cube, though it can be used "in extremis", if you do that's no longer really going to be a real gravy from the roast.
I often find that the gravy is improved with a good slurp of wine, maybe some port. Tomato ketchup can be quite a useful addition as can worcestershire sauce and mushroom ketchup. A pinch or two of herbs often round out the flavour if it was a bit light. When the gravy is seasoned and flavoured to your taste, that's it. It halps to simmer a ittle longer, in case there are still some unincorporated crusty bits. When ready to serve, strain through a fine sieve into a gravy boat and serve.
Hope that is all reasonably clear. Gravy making is not hard and the reason this was long, is because there are so many different possibilities (meats, dryness etc).
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All the best
Ian (in France)
