Good as far as it goes. A roux can be as light or as dark as you wish. For meat gravy, generally a nice tan will do just fine. For making something like creole, it should be the color of a dark penny. It’s important to stir constantly and not cook it on anything higher than medium heat, otherwise you risk having burned bits of flour in your gravy. I prefer to add stock instead of just water.
My sausage gravy combines the yumminess of both sausage and bacon:
1 pound pork sausage with sage
3 TBSP bacon grease
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
½ tsp salt
Pepper to taste
Brown sausage in skillet over medium-high. Set aside, leaving the drippings. Mix bacon grease into the sausage drippings. Reduce heat to medium, mix in flour and stir constantly until mixture turns golden brown. Gradually whisk milk into skillet. When smooth and thickened, return sausage to skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer about 15 minutes.
Superfluous Parentheses you’re a tomato lover aren’t you? Thank you for the wonderful list, but I can’t help but mention I am terribly allergic to tomatoes, merely touching one can give me a rash like poison ivy… but perhaps I can adapt some of your suggestions and use the ones that don’t involve the Red Fruit of Death…
After you’ve finished frying your chicken / pork chop / other breaded animal flesh / other NON breaded animal flesh, pour off all but about 5 tbsp of the fry oil, preserving also any fried bits from the batter, if applicable. Put in another 4-5 tbsp of flour and restart the burner and fry the plain flour until golden brown. Toss in a tsp of salt, Now pour in approx 1/3 cup of plain milk to start with, stirring as you add it, and it will combine with the fry oil and fried flour and pan drippings / crumbs to create a nice rich golden brown gravy. If too thin, cook until it thickens. If it gets too thick, add more milk.
Taste it; if it is too bland, add pepper and more salt as need be.
I recently decided to make country-fried steak like mama used to make.
Since she passed on a while back, and my sister didn’t answer her phone, I tried to make gravy based on memory. The results were not edible.
If my mother looking down from on high wasn’t disappointed **enough **that her grown son couldn’t make gravy, I then committed a mortal sin here in the South…I went to the store and purchased a jar of gravy. It was not very good.
I’m sorry Mom.
Just one of the many reasons I miss you still.
Almost every recipe in a good Cajun/Creole cookbook starts with the words, “First, make a roux”.
Making one is an art form. SWMBO doesn’t cook very often, but when she has me come into the kitchen and stir the roux, I know there’s gonna be gooood eatin’ later on.
There are some things that you may find passable versions of in a jar, white gravy is not one of them.
Seriously, learn to make a roux. I was amazed at how much better my gravy was when I learned to make a roux. Warning: If you decide to make gumbo, your arm may fall off from stirring the roux before it finally gets brown enough.
OP, since you specified your gravy-newbie status, I might was well chime in to say that you don’t actually have to have drippings of any kind. I occasionally get a hankering for chicken gravy to go with bread or mashed potatoes as a late-night snack, and this is how I do it:
Melt a Tbs or so of butter in a pan, shake the can of Wondra over it, and whisk. It’ll make a paste. Let that cook for a minute or two over medium heat, stirring it around, then slowly stir in some chicken broth until it’s as thin as you’d like it. Add a little salt, maybe some onion powder or crumbled dried sage or thyme or whatever.
I’ve made it when I was almost too drunk to stand up, so I figure, it probably counts as a simple recipe.
This is some Gravy 101:
First, understand that gravy is a type of sauce that includes meat (or vegetable, but I’m not sold on this part of the definition) drippings. No meat drippings, no gravy - then it is just a sauce - to quote Jerry Seinfeld “not that there is anything wrong with that”.
So let’s talk gravy. You can technically make a gravy ahead of time and incorporate the meat drippings at the end. I don’t like to do it this way, because you lose the BCBs (fond), which add a large amount of flavor. So let’s assume you want those BCBs.
Roast your meat according to the recipe. If recipe does not call for it, toss in a few large chunks of onion, carrot, and celery. Old and soft is fine for the carrots and celery; moldy is not.
When done, remove the meat to a grooved cutting board and tent with foil.
Strain any liquid in the roasting pan into a fat separator (can be makeshift if you don’t have a dedicated one). Toss vegetables, saluting them for a job well done (or, if they were fresh, serve them alongside the meat). Let liquid separate.
While liquid separates, make a roux in the roasting pan over 1 or 2 burners (depending on your pan size and your stove size), which consists of cooking equal parts fat (I like butter) and flour.[sup]1,2[/sup] Combine well and cook until blonde/light tan. My rule of thumb is one tablespoon of fat and one tablespoon of flour for each cup / cup + one quarter of liquid. As the cans of broth I use are just under two cups, I use two tablespoons of each.
Begin to deglaze pan. Using a whisk, add a liquid to the roux slowly, stirring constantly to prevent lumps and to scrape up the fond. I like to start with an alcohol based liquid, about 1/2 cup, cook the alcohol off, and finish with a can of low-sodium chicken broth. I find chicken broth, even in gravies for beef, tastes better than beef broth. Throwing a bay leaf in there is good, but not necessary.
When all the liquid has been added, add meat juices. Don’t forget the juice that collects on the cutting board (which is why you want one that is grooved). Reduce to a simmer, and continue to stir occasionally until just before the desired thickness (this will take trial and error). The sauce will continue to thicken slightly even off the heat. Adjust seasonings (salt and pepper, remove the bay leaf) and serve. Another personal touch, right before serving, I add a dash of either cider vinegar or lime. I find it really brightens the flavor, but doesn’t overpower.
[sup]1[/sup]If I want to use cornstarch, I skip the step about creating a roux and go right into deglazing. I use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water, mixed thoroughly (I have a shaker for this) and add it at the very end, with the gravy off of the boil, stirring well. I will also use it if my gravy turns out too thin, but in smaller quantities. Cornstarch thickens best just below boiling, while flour needs a boil to do its magic. Cornstarch may sound easier, but flour adds fat to the equation, and fat tastes good (plus this fat doesn’t end up suspended on top of the gravy). Another option other than butter would be to use two tablespoons of the meat fat with the two tablespoons of flour (like they suggest for the sausage and bacon gravies).
[sup]2[/sup]As mentioned above, a roux can go all the way from light blonde to brick red and darker. The darker the roux, the more intense the flavor BUT the less thickening power of the flour. The better you get and the more time you want to invest, you can play with the color of the roux, the amount of flour you use, and test the resulting flavors. Personally, because I am making the gravy after the meat has finished, I don’t have time to worry about darkening my roux.
Indeed. In fact, I prefer very dark gravy for meats as well. For Creole, it amounts to psychological warfare–you must convince the roux that you’re going to let it burn before adding the water or stock.
Getting the proper proportions of fat/oil and flour can be tricky, too. If you fall into the trap of adding more of one or the other to even it out, you can find yourself with a gallon of gravy. Fortunately, it freezes fairly well.
Creole/gumbo roux is a disaster waiting to happen. I usually add the vegetables to it a couple of minutes before it looks to be the right color, then continue stirring. If you wait until it’s colored and then add the veggies, it’s almost certain it will burn.
I apologize - I neglected to specify that the butter/Wondra ration should be roughly equal - say, a Tbs of each.
Also, for the OP - the longer you cook the roux, the darker it gets AND the *less * thickening power it has. In other words, if you cook it for just a couple of seconds, it stays very pale, and you get thick gravy you can stand a spoon up in. If you cook it for several minutes, gently, it starts to get darker and darker, richer in flavor, and the resulting gravy will not have as stiff and thick of a texture. It’s all a matter of personal preference.
