About Gravy
For lunch or dinner, the perfect way to highlight the taste of beef, pork, turkey or chicken, or to add a rich and creamy accompaniment to mashed potatoes, dressing or rice, is to smother everything in gravy. As a nice touch for breakfast, serve a batch of fresh biscuits topped with homemade sausage gravy.
Types
Types of gravy vary, depending on the meat ingredient used as the base for the gravy. Pan drippings from roasted pork or beef are used to make pan or brown gravy, and drippings from roast chicken are used to make creamy chicken gravy. Traditional Thanksgiving giblet gravy uses the neck, gizzard, liver and heart, along with meat drippings. White gravy uses a mixture of meat drippings combined with flour and either milk or cream, and red-eye gravy uses the drippings from fried ham.
Features
Brown gravy can be made with the drippings, mixed with flour, water and salt and pepper to taste. Onions that roasted along with the meat or were sautéed separately can be added to brown gravy. Giblet gravy can have both onion and celery added, and white gravy is generally used with bits of cooked sausage added to the mixture, then ladled over biscuits. Without the sausage, white gravy is served with fried chicken or chicken-fried steak.
Additional water can be added to the roasting pan to mix with the meat juices and then used as a thin gravy topping.
Considerations
Cut onions into thin strips, dice celery into small sections or slice mushrooms into slivers and then sauté before adding to the gravy. Or cook extra onions and mushrooms with the roasting meat and then add them, along with the drippings, to the gravy mixture.
Flour or cornstarch can be used to thicken the gravy base and, if the meat drippings are limited, use a package of dry gravy mix and water, along with the drippings, to make the gravy. Beef or chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in water or a can of beef or chicken broth can be used as a water substitute to thin the gravy.
Tips
If gravy is made with flour and water, combine these ingredients in a separate container, mix well and then add slowly to the drippings. Bring the mixture to a low boil, then turn the temperature down and continue to cook on heat low, stirring the gravy to remove any lumps. Add liquid if the gravy becomes too thick.
If the gravy is being made directly in a skillet, drain excess oil, if necessary, and keep things just hot enough to brown the flour if making white or brown gravy. Add either water or milk, depending on the type of gravy being made, and cook on low heat.
Warning
Gravy is prone to having clumps of flour that will cause the consistency of the gravy to be lumpy. While cooking the gravy, stir the mixture and, if the lumps do not dissolve, use the back of a spoon and press each lump against the side of the pan, causing it to dissolve into the gravy mixture.
Cook gravy on low heat to prevent burning or scorching; do not boil.
Tags: along with, drippings from, gravy uses, meat drippings, with drippings