Well, the gravy is finished. We decided to make ours over the weekend rather than wait to see what kind of pan drippings we got from the turkey or risk not having any at all. So we used a recipe from The New York Times that we wrote about last week. Click below to find out how it went...
We halved the recipe to get six cups instead of three quarts, but we didn't end up with six cups. This is how much we got:
All in all, about three and a half cups. Which should be fine for our family, but it was quite a lot of work and a whole lot of mess for less than four cups of gravy.
The actual gravy making was the least time consuming part. We first roasted turkey legs and wings which we then boiled to make homemade turkey stock. It wasn't complicated, but it did take time, and we think we simmered our stock too long, ending up with less liquid than the recipe called for.
Also, we were supposed to deglaze the roasting pan and add that liquid to the simmering stock. But once we put the turkey in our stock pot, we left to run some errands, so by the time we remembered about the deglazing, our stock was finished. No problem. We just deglazed and added the liquid to the finished stock. (This is getting complicated, but we were supposed to cool the deglazing liquid and skim off the fat before adding it to the stock, but since we were going to cool our stock and skim the fat off of it, too, why not add the deglazing liquid, fat and all, and just skim once? Maybe there's a reason, but anyway. That's what we did.)
We've never been great at skimming off fat. And we weren't patient enough to wait for it to completely harden before getting it off, so our turkey fat that we then cooked with flour for the base of the gravy was pretty liquid. Our flour/fat mixture was thin and runny, too, even though we added more flour than the recipe called for. It did seize up as soon as we poured in the stock, but the lumps smoothed out and everything came together quickly.
It tastes pretty great, we have to say. We're just disappointed in the yield. Bottom line: It doesn't take much more time to make the full recipe, so if you have a big enough pot to make the stock, go for it. You could also make the stock well ahead of time and use butter for the base instead of turkey fat, which would save you a lot of messy skimming.
- Get the recipe: Turkey Gravy from Scratch, from The New York Times
Related: Good Tip: Stock in the Slow Cooker
(Images: Elizabeth Passarella)
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I tried the same recipe and couldn't get the gravy to thicken. Do you think I can just make up more of the roux and add that to the "gravy"?
Not that I am encouraging anybody to cheat, but I've made gravy out of one can of mushroom soup, one jar of prepared chicken gravy, and one cup of white wine. Mix it all up and simmer for 10 minutes. Add salt if you like. I know, not the same as real turkey gravy from scratch---but easy, a lot less messy, and delicious.
ps I should clarify that I just wanted to share the recipe because I was happy with the results. Your gravy looks great and probably tastes delicious too. Happy Thanksgiving!
dforemsky: Mine isn't overly thick, either, although that might be a matter of taste (I prefer the consistency of heavy cream more than ketchup). Others may have good tips, but I think yes, you could do more roux. I'd add the gravy to the roux (as if you were adding stock in the original recipe) and whisk in a bit gradually- rather than the other way around. Or, perhaps a bit of cornstarch mixed with chicken stock, then whisked in? Anyone else have a better idea?
I always make gravy when the turkey is resting. Pan juices are great, and I always boil the giblets and the neck with some celery, carrots and onions to make some stock.
I usually make dark gravy because I'm not a huge fan of light turkey gravy.
I made Caramelized Onion-Balsamic Gravy over the weekend and it turned out wonderful. I got the recipe from epicurious.com.
Over-reducing a stock is by no means a "start-over" mistake. Just add water to get back to the amount you need. You can do this later as well. Whenever I make stock, I like to reduce it quite a bit, just so that when I store it in the freezer, it doesn't take up so much room.
I don't go all the way to demi-glace, but I do like to reduce it past what you'd want for a soup. I imagine if you completely let it dry out, you might end up scorching it and ruining the flavor, but if you just end up with 1/2 as much as you were hoping for, that's well within what you can just dilute back to whatever amount you need.
You just need to remember that it's pretty reduced, so that you add water to whatever you use it with, unless you want a super-concentrated flavor (I normally do, for pan sauces).
I freeze it in icecube sized chunks (I tend to let it cool enough to congeal, and then just scoop out large tablespoon mounds onto a non-stick mat in the freezer, rather than use an ice-cube tray, but both should work).
according to the USDA, you should only keep gravy in the fridge for 1 to 2 days, so i hope you froze it.
I think I may have used the same recipe, it was in our local paper last weekend. I took a few shortcuts but the result is delicious. I didn't bother to roast the turkey parts first (I used a variety of legs, thigh and necks) , just threw them in the pot with carrots, celery onion and a little garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns. I then filled with chicken stock (recipe called for water) and simmered about 5 hours, then added the wine. I let it sit a day in the fridge to harden the fat and skimmed that off and threw it away. It tasted a little too concenatrated so I added a few cups of water. Instead of adding the turkey fat to flour to thicken I took 1tbsp of butter and the rest oil to make 3/4 cup and then added about 10 tbsp of flour. Whisked that together adding some stock as I went. It came out smooth and just the right thickness.
My guess is that you really can't mess this up, if you need some more volume add water or chicken stock, more thickness-add flour. Thankfully precision is not too important here and that's just the kind of cooking I like to do. I'll leave the baking to my husband who's all about weighing every ounce.
I do it my mom's way (of course) -- just straight up pan drippings and a bit of flour and pan fat. Make the roux with the flour and pan fat and then add the pan drippings. Seriously, it's essence of turkey. It's a bit of a gamble with the bird but I think we like it. One year we had this fancy free range bird that had clearly been racing around it's entire life over the hills...not the MOST gravy, but it was flavorful.
I've never heard tell of anyone else doing this but my family has always had something they call "Dressing Gravy" (or snotty dressing if you ask my mom) with our turkey dinners. Its made with pan drippings, some of the dressing from the bird and left over potato water. It looks like something the cat hacked up but is delicious.
we made a quick veggie stock while the turkey was roasting--basically we threw all of our cut off bits into a pot with water, an onion, a carrot and a stalk of celery. The stock was great, and it made itself while we were prepping the rest of dinner.
I agree about just using the drippings, flour and some stock, with perhaps a little salt for flavor while the turkey cools. Great gravy and not so much work.