Making Top-Notch Gravy

[OnionTerror]

Its one skill i'd like to learn...Whats the best way to do it without burning the house down?

[ntb]

Use the cooking water from spuds, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoili. Use this to deglaze the roasting tin. Get all the caramelised goodness back into suspension by scraping with a wooden spoon. Filter off most (but not all) of the fat and transfer the liquid to a pan. Make sure you include any bits of meat etc. Ad a Knorr stock cube of the appropriate variety and bring to the boil. Dry mix cornflower and bisto powder 50:50 in a mug. Add cold water and mix to a thin paste. Add to pan whilst stirring until the desired thickness is reached. Simmer for a few minutes to cook the flour. Pour on dinner and enjoy.

[long time lurking]

Fat from the meat add flower to thicken use the water from the veg to dilute then gravy browning to colour if necessary and a touch of salt if desired

I use the roasting pan the meat came out of all done over a low heat

[Mrs Bear]

Take the meat out of the roasting tin and put aside to rest, covered, for at least 10 minutes. If there is a lot of fat in the tin, pour most of it off, but make sure you don't get rid of any juices or meaty bits.

Mix a well heaped teaspoon of Bisto powder with a little cold water in a mug, gradually add water or veggie water to fill the mug.

Sprinkle a tablespoon or so of flour in the roasting tin - mix with all the residue and cook over a low heat for a minute or two, but be careful not to let it burn. Stir the Bisto mix, add it bit by bit to the roasting tin, stirring and scraping up all roasty bits well to mix, and bring it all to the boil and simmer for a minute or two.

When ready to serve, pour in any juices from the resting meat and stir.

This is enough for 2-3 people - use more of the meat fat and increase quantities for more. I hardly ever have any left over.

[yellerkat]

!!!NO BISTO!!!

Just use flour in about 30ml of residual fat.

Cook it out slowly.

Season. Add hot water slowly while stirring like hell.

If you need to use stock, a bit of Touch of Taste liquid stock is good.

Let it simmer slowly while the meat rests and you finish everything else off.

[longgone]

get some beef bones, shin of beef and a bit of marrow bone, bottle of red wine stock vegetables and boil the hell out of it , strain leave it to cool scrape fat off the top heat as required , make sure you put a nice rib of beef aside to go with it

[Mr. Miyagi]

What's with all this bisto shite....

Take the meat out the the pan and place on a plate with foil over the top, tip the meat juices and fat into a clean saucepan, place the meat pan on the heat and deglaze using some water from the carrots/swede or whatever veg you're cooking (never potato water) once deglazed add it to the rest of the meat juices. Let it cool down for 10 minutes or so, but it must be cool as you will get lumps during the next stage.

Then add 2 heaped desert spoons of plain flour into the pan with the juices and 1 stock cube (I use beef for beef, lamb for lamb and chicken for chicken and pork) along with some gravy browning mix well then heat the mixture until it becomes thick. Then add the retained water from the vegs until you get the correct consistency which I would say about single cream or it coats the back of the spoon.

Taste and if needed add a further stock cube, if I add further stock cube its generally only a half. Don't forget to add the meat juices that have come from the meat when it's been resting.

I always add the water from a tin of garden peas which I think makes a big difference.

If its not thick enough (sometimes this happens) add some flour to cold water and mix well. Then add that to the gravy whilst stirring well until you get the correct thickness, but make sure you cook the flour out.

[happy_renting]

Yet another freeloader on the gravy training.

[Turned Out Nice Again]

[InlikeFlynn]

I'm with "long time lurking": gravy shouldn't need stock cubes/bisto.

Here's a method for chicken and any other meat that gives off plenty of juice during cooking. It helps to ram a couple of lemon halves and some thyme sprigs up the chicken before roasting.

Once the meat is cooked, put it on a plate/board and cover with tin foil to rest whilst you make the gravy.

Drain off all the meat juices and reserve. Allow to settle for a few moments then separate the fat from the rest of the juices and keep both parts.

Put a bit of the fat back into the roasting tin and heat up gently, scraping up all the crusty bits from the tin. Add a bit of plain flour (say 3 tablespoons) and stir into the fat and cook gently for a couple of minutes. Turn off the heat and gradually stir in all the meat juices (not the fat), vegetable water (carrot particularly good) and perhaps a splash of red wine, spot of mustard etc. perhaps a pint in total, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes. adjust seasoning and tweak with balsamic vinegar/ worcester sauce if it needs something.

Job done.

For pork (which tends not to give off much juice when I cook it) i use jamie olivers method of cooking the joint over a mixture of apple, celery and carrot, then adding vegetable water and rubbing through a sieve. A bit like this, but not using a 6-hour slow roast

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/6-hour-slow-roasted-pork-shoulder

[hirop]

I'm a convert to the butter-flour roux technique. takes minutes and you can make ahead and keep in the fridge. with the roux the flour is cooked before it goes near the stock, and it's very easy to add in small clumps and mix through until desired consistency is achieved. This will provide a velvety texture and rich taste, which when added to a good stock with meat juices is pretty much "next level" gravy. you tube for basics but it's hard to mess up. 25 g butter \ 25 g flour is all I use for a typical roast meal gravy for 2/3 peeps.

1. add butter to small pan on low heat

2. melt butter (don't brown it unless making a dark gravy for a red meat)

3. incremently add flour, I'd add about 1/4 of the flour each time, whisking through until combined. keep it all moving to stop it burning

4. store for later use.

some people say only add warm roux to a cold stock, or cold roux to a warm stock. I've added warm roux to warm stock and not noticed any disasters. drop it in and mix through the stock, add incrementally to control thickness. when it coats the back of the spoon you are about there, decant to gravy boat and it will thicken up nicely as it cools.

[sPinwheel]

Burn the house down, add water to the ashes, stir until thick then add a small drop of oil.

[bendy]

Greatest erm, xenophobic joke of all time!

Anyway, get a pressure cooker and make stock, roast and salt bones, celery, onion, leek, carrot and parsnip in duck/goose fat. Throw rest of veg scraps directly in pressure cooker with 1-2L of water. When roasted bones/veg is browed, add to pressure cooker with whole peppercorns and bay leaves/other herbs. Cook high pressure for 1-2 hours.

Drain almost all fat from whatever roast you are making saving the meat juices. Add stock into tin and heat directly on stovetop to a boil. Continue to simmer for at least 30 mins for flavours to mix. If you want it thickening use a mixture of arrowroot and water to a thin paste (if you want to keep a dark colour) or cornflour and water if you want it lighter. Blitz in blender or with an immersion blender if you want it smooth.

[Billy soy]

Its one skill i'd like to learn...Whats the best way to do it without burning the house down?

A nice quick, easy and tasty one for me is to chop up carrot, onion, celery with a few garlic cloves skin left on used as a base for your roasting joint to sit upon (season well). The veggies roast and caramelise, the garlic roasts beautifully in their skins and they all mingle with meat juices and fat.

After your meat is resting tip the whole lot into a sauce pan, add some of your broccoli or cabbage water with a dissolved stock gel or cube, squeeze the roasted garlic out of their skins first. Then blend it all up with a hand held blender, bring to the boil and your done.

No flour needed the veggie fibre thickens it up. Tastes great.

[Northerner]

Well that's sorted. But it is what you do with it next that is important:

[MarkWeston]

Good tips. For the actual beef roasting, try looooong and low cooking. I do 50-55 C for about 6-8 hours depending on size of the cut. The outside of the beef browns nicely and the inside becomes incredibly tender and cooked while retaining a nice rare pink. Started doing this a year or so back and won't roast beef any other way now.

This won't work nicely for the veg if you're inclined to roast the beef on a bed of veg though. You'll have to blast those after for 20 minutes or so (remove the beef of course).

[Bruce Banner]

What's with all this bisto shite....

Because it tastes good, even better with some Oxo too.

[SarahBell]

Take the tub of instant gravy, put spoonful in cup, add boiling water. Stir, pour over dinner.

[StuG III]

Bisto is good stuff, provided we are talking about the original powder and not the instant granuals.

I deglaze the pan with sweet sherry, then use white wine for chicken, or cider for pork, red wine for lamb, and red wine and Mackesons stout for beef.

Dash of Worcestershire sauce.

Sprinkle of thyme for red meat or tarragon for white meat.

[winkie]

Fat from the meat add flower to thicken use the water from the veg to dilute then gravy browning to colour if necessary and a touch of salt if desired

I use the roasting pan the meat came out of all done over a low heat

...that is how I do it...none of that expensive branded stuff bistow or knorr..... just plain meat juices, veg juices, flour with the fat, a drop of browning and seasoning if necessary.