Good gravy!

[Johnny L.A.]

(Maybe I should have called the thread 'Wavy Chitlin Gravy'. But that was a pun from an old cartoon when I was a kid, and probably too obscure.)

A spinoff from this thread, here is a place to post your gravy recipes and tips.

Breakfast gravy
Most people would call this 'sausage gravy', but I never seem to get enough grease out of sausage; so I tend to use bacon. Fry up six rashers of bacon, or half a pound of chub sausage (e.g. Jimmy Dean's), or both, or fry up the sausage and have bacon grease at the ready. Or go all out and fry bacon, sausage, and half a pound of smoked ham steak. Remove the meat from the pan. If there's not enough grease, add some bacon grease. Stir in an equal amount of flour. Cook the roux long enough to get rid of the floury taste, but don't let it get too dark. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly so that it's smooth. Chop of the sausage (if you hadn't crumbled it to begin with) and/or bacon. (You've already diced the ham if you cooked any.) Add the meat(s) to the gravy. Grind in a good amount of black pepper. Simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened. You probably won't need salt, but you can add some if you must. Serve over biscuits and/or chicken-fried steak.

Turkey gravy (white)
The other thread discusses turkey gravy, and there is some disagreement on how to make it. This is how I do it, and everyone likes it. Boil the neck and giblets to make some turkey stock, which will go into the dressing. Mince the giblets and neck meat. (I use the gizzard, heart, and neck meat in the dressing, and save the liver for the gravy. Many or most people put the other giblets in the gravy too.) Remove the roasted bird from the oven. There will be lots of fat and drippings. Use some fat and an equal amount of flour to make your roux. Lightly toast the roux in a saucepan to get rid of the floury taste. Use a grease separator to separate the remaining fat and non-fat drippings. Slowly add the non-fat drippings to the roux, stirring constantly so that it is smooth. The amount depends on how much roux you made, but I usually use two cups. Add milk, since we're making a white gravy. Add the giblets (in my case, just the minced liver), freshly-ground black pepper , and a bit of salt, and simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened.

Turkey gravy (brown)
Make it the same way as the white gravy, but leave out the milk.

Brown gravy
I make my brown gravy from beef or lamb drippings. I roast my meats in a cast-iron skillet, which is handy. Remove the roasted meat from the cast-iron skillet to a carving plate. Cover with foil and allow it to 'rest'. In the meantime, add flour to the skillet to make a roux with the drippings. Be sure to scrape up the sucs and mix it in! Once again, toast it to get rid of the floury taste. Add water, some salt, and a bit if freshly-ground black pepper, stirring frequently until smooth and thickened. You may also want to add some red wine to give it more body. Be careful with the salt and pepper.

...

Chicken gravy? Pork gravy? Other gravy? I'll let others post their recipes (as well as ones for the gravies I've posted). My versions are just variations on the theme. (e.g., creamed chipped beef on toast -- 'SOS' -- is the breakfast gravy, but with butter as the fat and with no salt (because the beef is very salty) and a dash of cayenne pepper and no black pepper.) I'd be especially interested in recipes for onion gravy, as I've never made it from scratch. I guess we should be a bit liberal with the definition of 'gravy'. Like, goulash is beef in a paprika gravy.

[DCnDC]

1 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup flaked nutritional yeast
2 cups milk
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup hot water
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce

Make roux with butter, flour and yeast. Gradually add milk, then the rest of the ingredients. Heat until it reaches desired thickness.

I'm not even vegetarian (my GF and her family are) but this stuff is pretty good.

[Chefguy]

I think you have it nailed with the turkey and breakfast gravies. I prefer my turkey gravy brown, so I use the stock from simmering the giblets and neck as the liquid, rather than that insipid crap off the market shelf. I add the giblets and don't strain them out, unless there is company that specifically doesn't like them in there.

I'm absolutely addicted to a good pepper steak(not the Asian type, although that's good, too) with cream sauce (a la creme). Here's Alton's take on it. I practically lived on these (with the ubiquitous side of fries) on my business trips to Brussels.

A cousin to gravy is the roux that one makes for Cajun/Creole dishes. The roux is made by mixing and heating equal amounts of flour and oil (usually about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of each), and stirring constantly on low heat until the roux is the color of a copper penny. When it's almost the color you want it (and how's that for a vague direction?), throw in your mirapois and continue to saute. If you wait until the roux is very dark, there's a chance you will burn it when cooking the vegetables, which will ruin the dish.

[Johnny L.A.]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

I think you have it nailed with the turkey and breakfast gravies.

So what am I doing wrong with the others?

FWIW, I rarely make beef gravy. Around here, beef roast is prime rib/standing rib roast. It gets horseradish, not gravy. I make gravy for roasted Legolam. Leftover gravy goes into the shepherd's pie with the rest of the leftovers.

[olivesmarch4th]

I can't find the Apple Brandy Gravy recipe I've been using, but I thought you might be interested to know this thread has inspired me to cook a feast.

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

So what am I doing wrong with the others?

FWIW, I rarely make beef gravy. Around here, beef roast is prime rib/standing rib roast. It gets horseradish, not gravy. I make gravy for roasted Legolam. Leftover gravy goes into the shepherd's pie with the rest of the leftovers.

Nothing at all! We don't have beef much, unless it's ground, so beef gravy is not something I make very often. I do like hamburger gravy, though, as an alternative to sausage gravy. I fry up chopped onions and garlic along with the meat, then proceed as usual with the flour and milk. When we do something like prime rib, then it's an au jus and Yorkshire pudding.

For poultry, I prefer a sauce such as Marsala to a gravy. I used to go to a place that served biscuits with a cream chicken gravy that was really very good.

[TriPolar]

I add olive oil while browning the sausage for 'breakfast' gravy. I find most sausage too lean as well. We also prefer horseradish to gravy for a beef roast, but for pan fried steaks I'll deglaze using beer or red wine. I prefer brown gravies myself, and will darken a roux to produce those, but when I do make white gravy, I usually add sour cream instead of cream or milk (breakfast sausage gravy being an exception where I use cream exclusively, in that case it fits into Chefguy's beverage category). I add crumbled bacon to pork gravy for flavor for a pork roast, but for pork chops I let the chops simmer in the gravy to give it more flavor (not that bacon would hurt in that case either).

[Chronos]

I don't know whether this would technically be considered "brown gravy", but my default gravy is to take the juices of whatever meat I'm serving, and thicken them with a bit of corn starch (which you mix with a little cold water first, to prevent clumping). If the meat has giblets, those go in too (but are not essential if there aren't any). I never actually make a roux, or use flour.

[janis_and_c0]

For sausage gravy, I fry the sausage, then add the flour, mixing till no more white flour shows, add salt and pepper, brown a bit more, then add 1 can evaported milk and 1 can's worth regular milk. (or till it's the consistancy you like.) It's my Great Grandma's recipie. It's also delicious and hard to screw up.

[TheChileanBlob]

Red-eye gravy:
Fry up some country ham (salt-cured). Add half a cup of black coffee to the drippings and cook and scrape up the crispy bits. Serve with grits, eggs, and biscuits. It will kill you but it sure is yummy!

[BigT]

My mom and her mom always did a white gravy that is like the breakfast gravy, but with no sausage or bacon or anything in it. I'm not sure what fat is used, but I assume butter. And salt is definitely needed. It's best when the roux is allowed to brown just a bit.

Also, we did chocolate gravy, but mom has lost the recipe. It comes out like a chocolate pudding. Here's one from online that's similar:

TENNESSEE CHOCOLATE GRAVY
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups milk
Melt butter in skillet. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add vanilla and milk to dry ingredients. (They might mix better if put into a jar with a lid and shaken well.) Pour into skillet with melted butter and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick. Serve with hot biscuits.
Makes 2 cups

[Snickers]

El Hubbo makes biscuits and gravy twice-ish a month or so, and he does nearly the same thing janis_and_c0 does: fry up and crumble the sausage (Jimmy Dean's sage, almost always), sprinkle flour over the sausage and let cook for a bit, add milk, then stir with a whisk until smooth and as thick as you like (it'll thicken more upon standing). Salt and pepper to taste.

It takes longer, maybe, but is less futzy than removing the meat from the pan and re-adding it later. What can I say? We're lazy.

[janis_and_c0]

Snickers, tell him to try the canned milk, it really makes a big difference!

Mmm, Now I want Biscuits and Gravy....