My grandmother made great gravy: velvety smooth, tasty. It never broke and was never greasy.
One Thanksgiving I asked her: “Gram, how do you make such good gravy?”
The response was so like my grandmother: “I roasted a chicken a couple of days ago and used the drippings from that.”
Gravy comes with a number of tricks, she said. She poured off the pan juices from the chicken and let them separate overnight in a container so she could skim off the fat, so the gravy wasn’t greasy. Unlike my mother’s gravy, which could be lumpy, she added just enough pan drippings to flour to make a roux, then whisked in more drippings and stock or broth to make the gravy, so it was smooth. My mother used milk instead of stock, and the extra fat could cause the gravy to break.
Gravy is probably the last dish a cook can make before hauling the turkey to the table, and it can be tempting to take shortcuts — or use that paste in a jar that people like to think is gravy. Do gravy right.
I don’t use my grandmother’s trick, although it works. But I do take a couple of steps a day or two before Thanksgiving to make my gravy more tasty.
Take the neck, kidney, heart and other giblets — but not the liver, which is too strongly flavored — and make a turkey stock. Just a couple of cups of water, maybe some fresh sage or a bay leaf to add some flavor. You can add a clove of garlic, or maybe celery and carrot, whatever you have hanging around. Let it simmer for an hour or two to draw the collagen out of the bits of skin and bone, and the flavor out of the rest. Then refrigerate it.
On Thanksgiving day, I don’t get many pan drippings because I roast my bird to only 165 degrees rather than whatever that cheap little plastic things stuck in the bird tells you. But I do get just enough to make a roux with the flour. Then it’s simply a matter of adding the stock as the bird rests and the family sets the dishes on the table. Easy as pie.
The one tip to watch for is to keep in mind that flour-thickened gravies will seem thin at first, but they thicken with time. So if it seems like the perfect consistency in the pan, it will be too thick in the gravy boat and once it cools a bit will be a gelatin.
PAN GRAVY
2 Tbs. flour
2-3 Tbs. meat drippings
2 cups turkey stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk the drippings into the flour in a pot over low heat until you get a smooth, creamy paste. Allow it to bubble for a couple of minutes to cook the starch out of the flour. Gradually stir in the stock, whisking all the while. Allow to simmer a couple of minutes until the gravy thickens, but isn’t quite as thick as you want. It will continue to thicken as you bring it to the table and serve it.
Play with it: You can do whatever you want to make the stock tasty. Add different vegetables, or different herbs. Substitute a half-cup of apple cider for some of the water. You can even add a splash of Worchestershire sauce.
