Does anyone know how to make a good lumpless gravy?

Question

I'm hoping to cook some meat & potatos up for dinner in a few days, however I don't know how to make gravy. Any help is welcome.

Answer 1

How to make the gravy greatly depends on how you intend to cook the meat. If you're going to roast it in the oven, the best tasting gravy will be to use the drippings that are left in the pan from the meat. Remove the meat and potatoes and scrape up as much of the little browned bits from the bottom of the roasting pan and transfer to a skillet. Heat this on medium heat until any water is cooked out - you can pretty much tell when it stops bubbling and steam stops coming off of it (if there was alot of meat juices in the roasting pan, try to get the fats only - when roasting, most of the juices will have evaporated in the oven already). If there isn't much fat from the meat, you can add a little vegetable oil. You're making a rue (browned flour and oil/fat) and you want equal amounts of fat and flour. Brown these together until golden colored, but don't burn. It's impprtant to get them browned though so your gravy doesn't taste like flour. Once browned, reduce heat to med/low and slowly add in stock/broth (beef or chicken depending upon what your cooking) stirring constantly. The stock/broth can either be canned, carton or you can mix boullion cubes/granules with water. Amounts will vary depending on what you have, but a good rule of thumb is 1/4 cup grease/fat/oil & 1/4 cup flour to 2 cups of liquid/broth. You can vary this according to whether you like a thicker or thinner gravy (thinner-add more broth, thicker-less broth). If you should accidentally add to much liquid and it becomes too thin, mix a tablespoon or two of corn starch with the same amount of cold water (should resemble heavy cream) and slowly drizzle a little at a time in the gravy, stirring constantly, until you reach the desired thickness. You can use flour and water mixed, but I don't like too, because then you have the flour taste.

If you're cooking the meat in a crock pot or some way that it's being cooked in a lot of broth or liquid, you can simply mix corn starch and cold water together and slowly pour it into the gently boiling liquid/broth until you reach the desired consistency, stirring constantly. If a lot of fat has cooked out of the meat, you may want to skim some off so as not to have a really greasy gravy. I've done this with a roast that was cooked in the crock pot, but I transferred the broth to a pan on the stove first and turned to a high boil, letting the broth reduce a little and intensify the flavor before adding the corn starch and water.
One more simple gravy recipe is to use a can of cream of mushroom soup and a packet of your favorite gravy mix. Put the mushroom soup in a small pan and mix the gravy mix with about 2 cups of cold water (there's corn starch in gravy mix and it will only dissolve in cold water - warm water will cause it to immediately start thickening, causing lumps), then add this to the mushroom soup in the pan and stir until mixed and heated through. I use this one with pork chops and use a pork gravy mix. Season chops and brown in a little olive oil in a hot skillet (don't have to cook them through at this point-just browned to get those little bits of flavor on the bottom of the pan), then add the mushroom soup and gravy/water mixture, stir together a little, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30-45 minutes until chops are cooked through and serve with cooked rice. -Dee-licious!!

Also an immersion blender works great for getting lumps out of gravy and you don't have to worry about damaging your pan.

Answer 2

When you make your gravy mix the grease and the flour up real good first, browning the flour before you put the liquid in. I don't know what kind of meat, and what kind of gravy you are making, but the secret to gravy is the browning.

Answer 3

I prefer gravy made with cornstarch to that made with flour. Use the recipe on the cornstarch box for a guide for how much to use for your meat drippings and juices. Put meat drippings into small saucepan on stove over low heat. Stir the cornstarch into 1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water until well-blended. Slowly add to drippings while stirring. Keep stirring until blended and thickened. Taste, if the flavor is strong enough, you can stir in more water.

Answer 4

put about a half stick of butter in a pan, melt it & add a couple spoons of flour. Mix untill smooth & thick. Add dripping from the meat & whisk untill smooth. If it is too thick or strong, add some water. Gravy comes out very smooth & yummy. If you need more flavor, add some canned broth to it

Answer 5

Take two table spoons of all purpose flour and butter and combine in a hot skillet. Cook over low heat until the color is light brown. Add 3/4 Cup of your favorite broth or stock in low sodium. Cook until combined. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
Enjoy.

Answer 6

Gravy boat, Gravy boat On my head Gravy boat, Gravy boat The turkey is ineffective Slather my meat With grease and chunks Gravy boat, Gravy boat I scent ham. damn! Dinner's waiting.

Answer 7

take the drippings or liquid from the meat and put it in a separate pan, in a cup put some corn starch about 2 table spoons ad cold water to dissolve the corn starch, about 1/2 a cup add to your meat drippings and stir with a wire whisk as you are heating it. it will thicken up as it heats and there will be no lumps.

Answer 8

if your using packet gravy add it to water while the water is still cold. If from scratch use corn starch or flour, add it to the grease from the roasted meat and just make like sasauge gravy always tastes best when you have the little bits and pieces (our family calls them goozy bits..??) from the roast in it.

Answer 9

When you follow whatever recipe you're using, do not dump all the broth/stock in at once like the recipe will probably say. Drizzle it in and whisk like heck. Then you can keep adding more a bit at a time while whisking constantly. It will come out so smooth.

Answer 10

Start with meat ready. remove/separate as much of fat as possible For liquid water from potato boiling is great or chicken broth. spices to taste. Thicken with corn starch. sprinkle as you steer. do it slow cause it will thicken fast Luck Pauly