Do you Have Gravy Problems

Making gravy is one of those basic skills that can show how good of a cook you are, and I often will find hit and misses among cooks I know, including me. So this post is all about how to make a gravy, and as many tips and tricks as I could fit into one post. I love sauces, gravy included, and they are often the one addition that can unify a plate of separate dishes, into a complex, flavorful meal. Let’s start by defining terms and tools, then go into various ways gravy is made.

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Gravy is a Sauce

Gravy can have many definitions

• OxfordLanguages: defines gravy as a sauce made from cooked meat juices together with stock and other ingredients.
• DelightedCooking: Gravy is a rich tasting and generally fattening sauce, most commonly made from pan drippings and juices derived from cooking meat, although nearly any thickened sauce can be referred to as gravy.
• Wikipedia: Gravy is a condiment, often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with wheat flour or corn starch for added texture.

So gravy is a thick sauce used as a topping to dishes, and most often made by using meat juices and fat, stock, and a thickening agent. But it can be vegetarian, and I will provide a recipe for one below.

Sauce Vs Gravy

I have been taught to make many sauces, mainly french and some Japanese and German ones as well. They always make good food taste even better.

• WhatsCookingAmerica: The word “sauce” is a French word that means a relish to make our food more appetizing.  Sauces are liquid or semi-liquid foods devised to make other foods look, smell, and taste better, and hence be more easily digested and more beneficial.  
• Because of the lack of refrigeration in the early days of cooking, meat, poultry, fish, and seafood didn’t last long.  Sauces and gravies were used to mask the flavor of tainted foods. 

All sauces I have found to be fattening, full of fat and carbs, which indeed is their intended purpose. Sauces hid rancid meat in the day, and gravy can help hide overly cooked turkey, up flavor of bland stuffing, and improve regular mash potatoes. Gravy also helps heat up leftovers and makes them taste better.

Gravy Tools + Diets

Equipment

If you are making gravy from turkey or chicken and you are cooking that meat, the only unique tool for making a meat-based gravy is a fat separator. If making a roux gravy, you will need a scale as it measures fat and flour ingredients 1:1 by weight. Otherwise, gravy specific tools are a pan, wooden spoon, whisk, and ladle or gravy boat for serving.

Do not make gravy in an aluminum (anodized is okay) pan or pot as it can turn the gravy an awful gray color. You may have to use a liquid browner to fix the problem.

Diet Based Changes

If you are gluten free the only unique ingredient is to use brown rice flour or a corn starch slurry in place of wheat flour for the roux.

If making a gravy for vegetarians or vegans do a roux gravy using vegan butter, ghee, or oil. Add a highly savory, homemade vegetable stock. Store-bought stocks do not taste savory enough for a veggie gravy in my opinion.

• When making stock for gravy be sure to have mushrooms and parmesan rinds to add that umami.

You need some salt added to these gravies to increase the taste, but need not add too much. If you are off salt, consider adding herbs toward the end of cooking so they are at their peak flavor.

Gravy Recipes + Approaches

Fish Gravy

Remember Curry is Spicy Gravy. I am not going to say much here, for many USA folks will not think of curry when discussing a gravy. But internationally, I need to mention this as it is in fact a gravy by definition. So, here is a list of the ingredients used in a Southern Indian fish curry I have made. Generally, all the ingredients go into the dish along with the fish whole or chopped, and it bakes until ready.

• Smashed green chilis
• Tamarind water (pods or puree or liquid concentrate available via Amazon)
• Paste from pounded onion, coconut, ginger, and garlic
• Ground red chili, turmeric, toasted cumin and fenugreek
• Oil and salt
• Cilantro leaves (not stems) as a topping

White Milk + Sausage Gravy

This is part of Biscuits + Gravy, a Southern Cuisine dish that is much loved and many people argue over the best gravy to use. This is one of the quick ones I have used to make a thick, white sausage gravy.

• Cook 4 chopped slices of bacon and 1# spicy sausage removed from the casing.
• Once meat is done remove from skillet.
• Whisk in ~1/4C flour to make a roux with the remaining meat fat, you want a toasty brown color, but not too dark.
• Gradually add 2C – 3C whole milk (non-flavored alt milk okay) until mixture comes to a boil.
• Stir constantly, let the mixture thicken.
• And then reduce heat to medium low for a couple of minutes.
• Add meat back in and mix well, cooking for a couple of minutes more.
• Taste and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
• Sometimes I add 1/4t thyme and a bit of fresh rosemary (1/8t) and if the sausage is not hot I may add a dash or two of dried red pepper flakes.

PattyCooks Gravy

These steps are in order of how I make a meat-based gravy, fresh from the oven.

1. Remove meat (chicken or turkey) from the roasting pan, and while that meat is tented and resting, I start making gravy.
2. I taste the drippings in the roasting pot to see if it tastes burnt or salty to help guide what I do next. If it tastes good then I continue. Since I do not brine chicken, salt is usually not a problem, but turkey can be.
3. Remove any excess fat from the meat juices, a bit is okay and provides flavor, too much and it has terrible mouthfeel. I do not throw away the fat, but keep it as I may add more to the gravy as I make it, and the dogs love this little addition to a meal.
4. Deglaze the roasting pan by putting it on the stovetop with the burners on, add ~1C to 3C chicken broth and whisk. When making gravy keep the liquid hot so everything combines well.
5. I do not strain this liquid as I like bits of the fond in there, but you can strain this mixture to make a very smooth gravy.
6. Once the liquid starts to boil I start thickening the gravy by using flour, cornstarch, or Wondra. For gluten-free I will use rice flour or corn starch. In a bowl I will add the flour and some of the hot gravy liquid and mix well using a whisk or blender, then pour it all into the boiling mix and whisk constantly to prevent scorching and lumps.
7. Once thick enough, turn off heat.
8. Taste and season with salt and pepper, or add more fat if required.
9. And this is when I may add dried or fresh herbs to the gravy for added flavor, which is based on what meal I am serving.

Roux Gravy

Start by preparing the liquid portion of the gravy, the pan drippings.

• Remove meat from the roasting pan, tent and let it rest.
• Deglaze the roasting pan by putting it on the stovetop with the burners on, add ~1C to 3C chicken broth and whisk continuously until all the fond is gone from the pan and is free floating in the liquid.
• Pour this liquid into an oil separator and let stand. Then pour off the fat, but reserve.
• I do not strain this liquid as I like bits of the fond in there, but you can strain this mixture to make a very smooth gravy.
• At this point a pretty clean roasting pan should be in the sink and the stove off.

Roux is made with a 1:1 ratio of fat to flour by weight (1oz fat to 1oz flour) and this is what I do next.

• Preheat the skillet or saucepan over medium heat.
• Then add the fat: butter, oil, lard, reserved meat fat from cooking
• Sprinkle, do not dump, the flour into the melted and hot fat
• Stir constantly with a wooden spoon in a figure-eight motion.
• The mix will do three things, get pasty, turn darker tan to brown, and smell toasty.
• The trick is the darker it looks, the less the toasty taste, so stop at the color you want for your gravy.

At this point, start slowly pouring your pan drippings and switch to a whisk, and keep whisking until everything is combined.

• Taste and season with salt and pepper
• Too sticky or pasty, add your dripping-broth mixture
• Too runny, sprinkle in more flour and here is where my trick is to use Wondra if more flour is needed (more on this below).
• Not tasty enough, add a bit more or the reserved fat (not much)

Semi-Homemade

I have been known to grab a jar of pre-made turkey gravy base from the store and use that to start making the turkey drippings gravy at home. This is usually when I am in a hurry and trying the do the Cook Sandra Lee semi-homemade style of cooking.

• Sandra Lee describes her style as using 70% pre-packaged products and 30% fresh items. 

The gravy has the right flavor and has a tendency to be a bit runny since people overdo it by adding too much meat juice. But if you add a bit of juice at a time you can make a great tasting gravy.

Vegan Gravy

Make a vegetable broth first, or purchase Better Than Bouillon, a no-chicken base which is vegan certified.

• Ready your pre-made, umami rich, vegetable broth.
• Get everything prepared as this will go fast and you need to keep whisking as the gravy heats.
• Add vegan fat (vegan butter or plant oils) and flour in a hot skillet to make a roux, and keep mixing while cooking.
• Once it has the right color, slowly add 2C broth, whisking constantly and turn heat on to medium high.
• Add 1T soy sauce or gluten-free tamari sauce.
  • Optional Add 3/4t onion powder and whisk as you add each ingredient.
  • Optional Add 3T nutritional yeast.
  • Optional Add 1/2t dijon mustard.
• Whisk and it will thicken; once thick, taste to see if you need to add anything else.
• Season with salt and pepper. I tend to also add dried herbs right after I add the thickening agent so it flavors the mix.

Wondra Gravy

What I call the Wondra Gravy is one that uses the blue canistered ”Wondra” flour to make lump free gravy. Wondra is a quick mixing, enriched flour that WaPo describes has been steamed and dried — a process called pregelatinization — before being packaged and sold. The process essentially precooks it and results in a super fine powder that easily dissolves in liquids.

This gluten product contains enriched Wheat Flour, with Niacin (a B vitamin), Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid (a B vitamin). It is also great for making ultra-flaky and crispy pie crusts and as the dredging flour for fish and poultry.

Tips on Gravy Makings

• I only make meat gravy from chicken or turkey as I find ham too salty and beef just does not taste good as a gravy. (Beef fat does not taste good to me.)
• People do make gravy from fish, but it is not a USA tradition.
• Lumpy gravy can be repaired by trying to break them up with a blender or using a hand blender, or by running the gravy through a sieve.
• Salty gravy can generally be repaired with a pinch of brown sugar. Not too much, for then you will find you switched over-salty with too sweet.
• Missing flavor can be approached in two ways. First is to add a teaspoon of instant bouillon granules, and second is to see if you missed any fond.
• If you tend to make thin gravy, use the roux method to see if that helps.
• If your gravy is too thin, add a cornstarch slurry as it has twice the thickening power as flour. Arrowroot has even more thickening power than cornstarch.
• An old Chef’s trick: if your gravy is lacking a sparkle or sheen, whisk in a pat of butter right before serving and it will shine right up.
• Season sparingly, for as the gravy thickens, water evaporates, and the taste of the gravy concentrates. Too much salt and it will not taste good. Taste before serving to see if anything needs to be added.
• Gravy gets gelatinous when cold, so always serve it hot. To heat it up again the next day use the microwave.
• Add herbs and seasoning after the gravy has thickened, and add only the herbs to match your meal. If it is a turkey meal I may add sage and thyme for instance to bring up the turkey and fall flavors. If a chicken meal perhaps tarragon and thyme.
• Do not rush the gravy and add too much thickener when all it needed was a bit more time to cook. Focus on the food and not the time.

There is more to write about gravy, such as the regional specialties that exist in various states in the US. But that will have to be saved for another post.

—Patty

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