Woody's make ahead gravy HELP part 2.....too thin

asolo

15 years ago

What directions? Have no idea what you're referring to.

Thickening is easy...but don't use water. Use cool broth. Corn starch or flour work fine. Blend into the cool broth and add to heating gravy, stirring all the time, until desired thickness achieved.

metaxa

15 years ago

Potato flour.

After all you are putting it onto mashed potatoes, right?

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stir_fryi, I have the "perfect" solution for you or anyone who wants to have stress free foolproof gravy. This is the gravy recipe that I have been using for years. It took a lot of stress off of me when I first started preparing Thanksgiving for my husband's family. You prepare most of it ahead and then just add the drippings at the end. Mine comes out great every time. Planning tip: Can be made through step 4 one day ahead and refrigerated. (I even prepare the broth further(through step 2) in advance and freeze - then add the butter/flour mixture the day before Thanksgiving) Perfect Gravy (Woman's Day 1994) BROTH *Turkey neck and giblets (including liver) (You could use turkey parts purchased from grocery store for this step if you don't have access to the neck and giblets) *6 cups chicken broth (I use canned) *2 large onions sliced *1 cups sliced carrots *1 cup dry white wine or water *1/2 cup celery leaves *6 cloves garlic peeled *1 Bay leaf 6 Tablespoons butter @ room temp 3/4 cup all purpose flour Turkey Drippings Salt and Pepper to taste 1. Cut turkey neck and heart in half. Put into a large saucepan along with gizzard and remaining broth ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently, uncovered for 1 1/2 hrs. Add liver and simmer for 30 mins longer. 2. Discard liver and giblets. Strain broth through colander/strainer into a large measuring cup, pressing vegetables to extract as much juice as possible. Discard vegetables. Add water to broth if needed to make 6 cups. 3. Mash butter and flour with a fork until blended to a paste. 4. Bring broth to a boil, reduce heat to low and gradually whisk in flour mixture, l chunk at a time, until blended.( I take the butter flousr mixture and add the broth to it in a jar to make it smooth and easier to blend into the broth) Whisk until thickened and boiling. Boil 3 minutes longer to cook out any floury taste. 5. After turkey is removed from roasting pan: Spoon fat off pan drippings and discard. Stir juices in pan(add up to 2 cups of water if juices have evaporated) scraping up brown bits on bottom of pan. Add no more than 2 cups to gravy. Heat over medium-low heat until hot. Season to taste(sometimes I add a little kitchen bouquet or gravy master for color or taste if needed)

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Ann, try saving it to your Clippings. Look to the right of your last post (just above this). You will see the word Clippings in green letters. Under that it will say Clip This Post. For each recipe or comment you want to save, click on Clip This Post. Another way to do it is to highlight the entire thread, or the parts you want, right click with your mouse and then click on Copy. Start a new document in Word and paste the thread into that document, then save it to your computer. If you want me to do that for you and then email it to you, let me know.

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I don't usually cook up the turkey neck, but I did this year with onion, celery, and carrots. The broth was so thin compared to the turkey drippings so I just decided to use the turkey dripping and combine the broth with it. I cook my turkey in a bag so I don't get the brown dried up part. The turkey was done before everything else so I drained the liquid and put them in the freezer to get the fat to float to the top. I also added ice cubes to help cool it down. I put a couple of slices of bread in to get additional fat. I made the gravy by mixing some liquid with flour and mixing it into the boiling broth on the stove. I dded three chicken bullion cubes and peppered to taste after that. It was basic, but good.

Did you allow it to come to a full boil and cook for about 5 minutes?
In my house we call what you seem to have "skinny gravy"...easily fixed....take some chicken broth...out of a can if that's what you have....and for say about 1/2 cup of cool broth and whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour...whisk until smooth....then when your skinny gravy is simmering, slowly add the flour mix....whisking like mad....and stir until the gravy thickens...
If it's still not thick enough....repeat the process....

rachelellen

15 years ago

Ditto on what other folks said...except...if you use flour, be sure and simmer the gravy for at least 10 minutes after you add it to avoid a raw flour flavor.

A mixture of cornstarch & just enough broth or water to liquefy it takes less time than flour and water, because it thickens almost instantly.

A novice gravy maker should probably stick to one or other of these methods, especially the day of!

For myself, I would probably make a roux (blond is fine) and thicken it to my taste ahead of time so as not to worry about it later. Instructions for making roux are easy to google up, but the basic idea is to cook flour in some form of fat (for gravy, I like to use chicken fat or bacon fat, but oil, lard or butter are fine-slightly more fat than flour) over a medium heat until the raw flavor of the flour is cooked off. This mixture is then whisked in, thickening the gravy or sauce or whatever.

Cooking a roux for longer periods of time, so that they grow very gradually darker, produces a thickener that adds certain desired flavors to a dish. For example, a dark roux, called a "chocolate roux" by many, is both a thickener and a flavor enhancement for dishes such as etoufee or gumbo.

Remember that the longer flour cooks, the less it retains of it's thickening property. A dark roux thickens far less readily than a blonde roux.

I hope I didn't just make this sound way too complicated. :)

cynic

15 years ago

Isn't the main thing that it tastes good? Sometimes trying to doctor things up can spoil the taste of a good thing. Especially being a little thin I don't think I'd risk it, especially being your first time with the recipe. Many people like a thinner gravy too. Personally I'm used to gravy you can slice with a knife! But thick or thin, flavor is far more important to me. My one thought or question for the experts is more like it, would it thicken up just leaving it simmer a bit? That wouldn't be as large a risk I wouldn't think as far as affecting flavor and it has to be heated anyway. Just a couple thoughts.

Asolo, it's the Cook's Country Make Ahead Turkey Gravy often referenced on here. You'll find it in a number of threads too.

Woody's make ahead gravy HELP part 2.....too thin

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asolo

metaxa

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