How to make gravy

[Henry Hawthorne]

Hi all,

Going to make roast beef today and also fancy making my own gravy, never tried it before and Google throws up a million different ways of doing it.

Wondering if you guys had any favourite recipes/tricks and tips to help me on my way to gravy godliness!

Thanks,

HH

[Bonefish Blues]

Pour off excess fat from roasting pan, taking care to leave meat juices. Stir in flour, scraping off crusty bits. Onto heat, adding veg water or stock until correct consistency. Season to taste.

[pacman1]

As above, but I use gravy granuals instead of flour and add a pinch of sugar..

[grumbledoak]

I struggle with gravy from scratch, to be honest. In part I suspect this is due to my fan oven- you don't necessarily get a lot of 'pan juices'. Even a splash of water in the pan to stop it all burning has not been that successful. My plan for the future is to reduce some pre-made chicken stock with red wine.

With the kettle on for the Bisto if needs must!

[missdiane]

I make roux to thicken instead of just flour or gravy granules, same job.

(Can't really beat a homemade stock too, as lovely as oxo and such is, with the likes of gravy and rissoto I try to make proper stock)

Edited by missdiane on Sunday 22 November 17:21

[loltolhurst]

chemists were on the news recently saying the perfect gravy was made up of beef juice and cabbage water - i tried it it wasnt bad!

[Lefty Two Drams]

For roast beed I tend to deglaze the roasting pan with a bit of oloroso, adds some depth of flavour and sweetness to the gravy. Goes down a treat!

[Bill]

Bonefish Blues said:

Pour off excess fat from roasting pan, taking care to leave meat juices. Stir in flour, scraping off crusty bits. Onto heat, adding veg water or stock until correct consistency. Season to taste.

I do similar, but add wine as well and I tend to roast some onions, carrots and garlic in the tin with the meat. Leaving the skin on the onion and carrots tends to result in darker gravy. And don't forget toadd the juices from the rested/carved meat

(And I often can't be arsed to removed the excess fat)

[Shaw Tarse]

Bill said:

Bonefish Blues said:

Pour off excess fat from roasting pan, taking care to leave meat juices. Stir in flour, scraping off crusty bits. Onto heat, adding veg water or stock until correct consistency. Season to taste.

I do similar, but add wine as well and I tend to roast some onions, carrots and garlic in the tin with the meat. Leaving the skin on the onion and carrots tends to result in darker gravy. And don't forget toadd the juices from the rested/carved meat

(And I often can't be arsed to removed the excess fat)

serve really hot in a bowl with slices of rare (raw) beef & crusty bread.

[Bonefish Blues]

Bill said:

Bonefish Blues said:

Pour off excess fat from roasting pan, taking care to leave meat juices. Stir in flour, scraping off crusty bits. Onto heat, adding veg water or stock until correct consistency. Season to taste.

I do similar, but add wine as well and I tend to roast some onions, carrots and garlic in the tin with the meat. Leaving the skin on the onion and carrots tends to result in darker gravy. And don't forget toadd the juices from the rested/carved meat

(And I often can't be arsed to removed the excess fat)

Wine? bloody continentals, with yer fancy jouxes or suchlike - you'll be putting garlic in things next!

[Henry Hawthorne]

Cheers guys, just made my gravy (yes my Sunday lunch got slightly delayed).

Added some chopped onion into the juices and sweated them down, then added the flour and then the stock and reduced. Was absolutely delicious.

[sleep envy]

grumbledoak said:

I struggle with gravy from scratch, to be honest. In part I suspect this is due to my fan oven- you don't necessarily get a lot of 'pan juices'. Even a splash of water in the pan to stop it all burning has not been that successful. My plan for the future is to reduce some pre-made chicken stock with red wine.

With the kettle on for the Bisto if needs must!

I use a touch of taste stock from knorr in 250ml of water with a glass of wine

add in a squeeze of tomato puree, worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs and corn flour to thicken

comes out perfect every time

btw - if you cook your joint with garlic in their skins you can squeeze them out and remove the skins before you make the gravy

Edited by sleep envy on Monday 23 November 09:48

[grumbledoak]

sleep envy said:

I use a touch of taste stock from knorr in 250ml of water with a glass of wine

add in a squeeze of tomato puree, worcestershire sauce, mixed herbs and corn flour to thicken

Thanks muchly, I'll be trying that tonight!

[shirt]

my mum makes gravy using the meat juices and some yorkshire pudding batter with onions and other bits and bobs. i don't know the exact recipe but its so good i can drink it by the mugful.

[FunkyGibbon]

loltolhurst said:

chemists were on the news recently saying the perfect gravy was made up of beef juice and cabbage water - i tried it it wasnt bad!

indeed they did:

http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/rsc/2009/10/22/jon/t...

[Dupont666]

when thickening it with corn flour, pour the flour into a little tub of water and mix... so much easier to add the white liquid to liquid gravy then trying to get cornflour lumps out of gravy...

[sleep envy]

yep, or if you want to use normal flour 1:1 ratio of flour to butter mushed together but add it a bit at a time!

[grumbledoak]

sleep envy said:

comes out perfect every time

Indeed it did. Much better than trying to get flavour out of charcoal!

[Dibble]

Roasting tin juices, in the roasting tin. Don't bother with skimming the fat off (unless it's poultry).

Onto hob - high heat.

Bottle of red wine to deglaze. Simmer, reduce by half, which will avoid any vinegary taste. If not, a tiny squirt of ketchup, a teaspoon of Maple syrup or some brown sugar will take the edge of.

Any veg water you have to hand.

Knorr/Oxo cubes - two or three.

Teaspoon of Marmite, splash of Lea and Perrins.

If it needs thickening, cornflour mixed with cold water, then trickled in gently to the bubbling pan - you have to whisk like crazy to avoid lumps, and try not to lob in all the cornflour paste in one big dollop - a trickle over the moving whisk works for me.

The big clue is to taste taste taste at every stage, which allows for tweaking throughout.

[Mr Gearchange]

Roast onion, carrot and appropriate herbs underneath the meat.
Remove meat - deglaze tin with half a bottle of red wine.
Mash the cooked veg into the wine and reduce.
Add stock and cornflower - stir well and reduce further.

Sieve and serve.