How do you make REALLY tasty gravy to go with your Sunday roast?

Question

I never seem to get it right.

Answer 1

Add the juices from the roast.

Answer 2

After the meat and potatoes etc are roasted, remove from the pan and keep warm. The meat will need to rest for about 20 minutes anyway, which you would need to do on the work surface carving board covered lightly with tin foil. This will make the meat relax.

In the roasting pan there will be a mixture of juices and fat. Try and spoon off all but two or three table spoons of the fat - depending on how much gravy you need to make.
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Turn on the hob and put the whole pan on that. Add a little flour and stir round constantly. You will get clumps, do not worry. Then add some stock or water or white or red wine (depending on what you are roasting) and stir round vigorously until well mixed and slightly thickened to your liking.
I like to add a little Marmite or Bovril for a stronger flavour. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Keep warm.

if you do find it is too lumpy you could always pass the whole through a seive as a last resort.

Answer 3

You need these things:

the roasting tin you cooked the roast in, which should be reasonably heavy-bottomed.

a wooden spoon.

A glassful of wine.

Stock of some kind - the real thing if you have it, or you can use M&S concentrated chicken stock (make up about 200ml of it), or you can make it with Marigold stock powder, but please don't use stock cubes.

A tablespoonful of flour.

The other thing you need to have done is not overcooked the meat. All that dark sticky gooey stuff at the bottom of the roasting tin - that's the caramelised juices that have come out of the meat while you were cooking it, and in terms of making gravy it's pure gold. If, however, it's not dark and sticky but black and crunchy, you've burned it. Never mind, we can still make gravy.

So your meat is resting on a board, perhaps covered with foil, letting the juices sink back into the middle, right? Good.

There is or should be a fair amount of fat in the roasting tin. Tip off all but a generous tablespoonful, you don't need all of it.

Place the roasting tin over your smallest hob/burner. Turn up the heat until the fat and juices are bubbling. Scrape away at the brown sticky stuff until it's all loose.

You said you wanted to make gravy, so the next thing is to tip in the flour. Swirl it around the hot fat vigorously, breaking up any little lumps. It will bubble and thicken and start to turn brown. Don't let it go dark brown, or you'll burn it. I wouldn't even let it go genuinely brown. Just a very pale cafe au lait colour. This coats each grain of flour with fat and stops it from clumping. Do this for no more than a couple of minutes.

Now, add your wine. The wine will immediately cause the flour/fat mixture to thicken. Good. Swirl it around, mixing up all the brown crusty bits and letting it get thick. Again, this should only take a couple of minutes.

Now, add your stock. It will loosen up the mixture and turn it liquid, but keep swirling it around and letting it bubble. The flour grains will absorb the liquid and start to swell, and as they do so the gravy will begin to thicken again.

When it's like you want it, turn the heat right down and taste it cautiously. It should taste of gravy - meaty, rich, with a slight headiness from the wine (the alcohol will boil off, infants have tasted my gravy and not come to harm). Season to taste. Keep it warm on the hob and if it gets too thick while you serve the meal, add a drop of water now and again to dilute it. But only a drop at a time.

Don't use gravy granules. They are just dried caramel and will make your gravy taste fake.

Answer 4

Deglaze your pan with a little wine to get all of the fond off the bottom of the pan and add this to your drippings.

Make a roux (equal parts butter and flour cooked in a pan until browned to the color you want). To the roux, add the skimmed drippings from your roast. The roux thickens the drippings into gravy. If you need more gravy, add a little water or milk and adjust seasoning as necessary, but be careful with the salt. This gravy will continue to thicken as it cools and can be reheated with leftovers.

A slightly less flavorful way is to dissolve cornstarch in cold water or milk by whisking, and slowly pour this into your roast drippings. Heat until simmering and the cornstarch slurry will thicken the gravy. Adjust seasonings as necessary. This gravy has a nice glossy look to it but doesn't reheat very well for leftovers.

Answer 5

Remove the roast to a platter and keep warm.

Pour off the drippings and let set until you can separate the fat. Reserve both the fat and the juices. Deglaze the pan with broth, wine or water. Add to the juices.

For each cup of gravy needed, use 2 tablespoons of fat (add butter or bacon grease or oil to the fat from the roast if needed), 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 cup of the reserved juices (add broth, wine or water if needed to make enough).

In a saucepan large enough to hold the amount of gravy you are making, mix the flour and fat and cook over medium heat until the flour is nicely browned.
Add the reserved juices, stirring constantly.
Continue stirring and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer two or three minutes, until thickened, stirring occasionally.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Bert

Answer 6

The most important part is the stock you use. Save all the water from your vegetables, save the juices from your meat. The best thing is to make the gravy in the tin the meat was cooked in, so you can get all the crispy brown bits in. I usually roast my meat over onions so I incorporate these into the juices. You can then use an appropriate stock cube or two as well, only buy the best ones. It's often good to add a drop of red wine, some english mustart, few fresh herbs etc. best thing is to experiment. If you are having chicken you could add a teaspoon of cranberry jelly, lamb mint jelly, pork fresh sage leaves, gammon mustard, beef maybe gravy browning etc. etc. obviously if you want it thick you just cook it until it has reduced down sufficiently, or you could add flour or cornflour. You can add almost any alcohol but in small measures until you reach the required taste. Good luck. Lovely with Yorkshire Pud.

Answer 7

There is this stuff called WONDRA, its a flour made specifically for gravy's and sauces!! I ALWAYS KEEP IT IN MY PANTRY!!

Brown Gravy recipe:
2 cups beef broth
freshly ground pepper to taste
and WONDRA (can be found at any grocery store)
bring broth to boil add wondra until gravy meets your desired thickness making sure to stir frequently gravy is done when it coats the back of spoon.


here is the BEST home made recipe for WHITE gravy. Cook some sausage (i use jimmy dean regular flavor) until done, you can make patty's or crumble it or whatever it doesn't matter. when sausage is done add 3 cups of milk and the best stuff in the world WONDRA flour ( you can buy this at any grocery store in the baking isle. add the wondra little at a time until it reaches you desired thickness. while your making your gravy if you have a mashed potato mashing tool (i don't know the exact name its called) keep it in the pan stood up and make sure you dragging the bottom of the pan as to get all the flavor of the sausage incorporated into the gravy. when it coats the back of a spoon thickly then its done!

Answer 8

i found the best way is to cook the roast in a dutch oven covered. set the oven at 400 put the roast into the dutch oven cover about half way with water. watch it every hour or so if the water gets low add a little never let it get to where its not at least half way covered also cut up a onion and some mushrooms if you want add some beef bouillon. mine turns out great just made it yesterday. my girl never had a roast that wasnt cooked in a crock pot. after you remove the roast add a little hot water to youre stock with some flour use a wisk so you dont get lumps add the flour slowly spinkle it.

Answer 9

**********BROWN GRAVY
This recipe can be used to make either beef gravy or brown chicken gravy just by using beef broth or chicken broth. Always remember to use equal amounts of fat and flour and increase amount of broth accordingly. 3 tbsp. all purpose flour 2 - 2 1/2 c. broth 1/2 tsp. black pepper 1/2 tsp. salt
Strain broth from roast beef (or roast chicken). Remove excess fat by adding ice cubes and remove as it hardens. Add 3 tablespoons fat and 3 tablespoons flour to skillet and stir over medium heat until browned. Add salt and pepper, stir in broth, and bring to a boil. Continue stirring while gravy boils 2 to 3 minutes. If it gets too thick, add a little more broth or water. Serve hot.

Answer 10

Use a little of the fat off the roast to fry a finely chopped onion until soft. Add around 2 tablespoons of plain flour and fry until the flour 'pops' and has absorbed all of the fat. Stirring constantly, gradually add the juices from the roast and boiled water until you get to your prefered constistantcy. Add a stock cube and seasoning and simmer gentley for approx 5 - 10 mins. Delicious!

Answer 11

I used to be horrible at making any gravy, but somehow this one works like magic. It's bacon gravy. We save bacon drippings in a container in the fridge.

2 big Tbsp. congealed bacon grease
4 to 4.5 Tbsp. flour, depending on how thick you want it
2 cups beef broth (preferably from an au jus base)

Melt the drippings, whisk the flour in 1 Tbsp at a time and cook for a minute or two more. Slowly whisk the broth in. It'll be nice and smooth and it thickens more after a few more minutes of cooking.

We just had it last night over mashed potatoes.