Gravy For The Masses

Total Time: 25 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• stock or broth, of the type of meat you are serving
• wine, detailed below (optional)
• juices from cooked meat, from the meat you are cooking
• 3 tablespoons melted butter or 3 tablespoons bacon fat
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 5 ounces sliced mushrooms, sauteed in butter for 5 minutes (optional)
• minced cooked giblets for poultry (optional)

Recipe

• 1 one note i can't stress enough.
• 2 if you are making a gravy with lamb juices, use the melted butter, not the bacon fat, or you'll get a gravy that's way too salty.
• 3 gravy base: when you are done preparing your poultry or roast, remove the meat from the roasting pan.
• 4 skim the fat from the remaining juices and discard.
• 5 reserve the juices separately by simply pouring them into a cup or bowl.
• 6 do not use a scraper.
• 7 add the butter or bacon fat directly into the pan.
• 8 sprinkle the flour evenly over the pan.
• 9 using a whisk, whisk the flour into the liquid until evenly blended (the mixture should be the consistency of batter).
• 10 using a wooden spoon, carefully and with as much strength as you can manage, scrape up as much of any burnt on pieces as you possibly can.
• 11 using a rubber scraper, scrape the mess into a medium to largeish saucepan (the heavier the better).
• 12 turn the heat on medium and continue to whisk for a few minutes.
• 13 add liquid as described below for each meat type.
• 14 add any optional ingredients you may have.
• 15 increase the heat to high and bring the gravy to a boil, whisking often and scraping up any of the flour paste that has congealed.
• 16 lower to a simmer and cook about 5 to 10 minutes, or until the consistency of the gravy is just a tad runnier than you'd expect.
• 17 at this point feel free to improvise with spices.
• 18 i add a pinch of freshly ground black pepper and occasionally 2-3 tbsp freshly minced parsley to the beef and lamb.
• 19 the chicken i leave alone.
• 20 let the gravy cool for about 5 minutes, it should thicken a little on cooling, and serve.
• 21 liquid combinations (the'body' of the gravy).
• 22 for poultry (chicken or turkey) gravy: use a combination of the reserved juices, chicken stock or chicken broth, and chablis (optional), making 2 cups of liquid total.
• 23 the giblets and the mushrooms go wonderfully with this gravy for beef gravy: use a combination of the reserved juices and beef stock or beef broth (i'm too scared to add wine to this one, i don't know much about red wines, maybe try a dash of merlot) to make 2 cups.
• 24 the mushrooms go great with this one for lamb gravy: first off, use melted butter instead of bacon for the gravy base or the gravy will be too salty.
• 25 otherwise, proceed as with beef gravy above.