Learn the secrets on how to make a great tasting turkey gravy.
Turkey Gravy Secrets Revealed
To make the best tasting turkey gravy you need three things;
well-seasoned fat, flour, and a good rich broth. For each cup of
finished gravy you will need one tablespoon of fat, one tablespoon of
flour and 1 cup of broth.
Start by making up some rich turkey broth. You can use the turkey neck,
heart, gizzard or other parts usually found packed inside the turkey
cavity. Add some minced onion, diced celery and 1/2 teaspoon salt in
enough water to cover, simmer until vegetables are tender. Dice the
turkey liver, add to the broth and simmer for about 15 minutes.
You can use the turkey bones if you like. The turkey bones yield much
more broth, just add more onions and celery to the pan. You will have
to carve the turkey ahead of time, which means no whole roasted turkey
sitting on the dinner table waiting to be carved by the host or hostess.
Make sure you use the drippings from the roasting pan, as grandpa
always said "that's the goodies", just after you've removed the cooked
turkey and roasting rack from the roasting pan. Strain poultry
drippings through a sieve into a 4-cup glass measuring cup.
Add 3 tablespoons of corn oil to the bottom of the roasting pan. Stir
around to get out the brown bits that have baked on. Add to your turkey
drippings. "Wash" the roasting pan out with the turkey broth if it's
made or add water your going to use in the broth if you haven't made it
yet.
The trick is to know how many cups of broth you have and if you have
enough fat. Remember you will need one tablespoon of fat, one
tablespoon of flour and 1 cup of broth for each cup of finished gravy.
If you are light on broth you can add some canned chicken broth.
If you are light on fat you can add a small amount of corn oil. You can
save the rest of your broth for storing and reheating the turkey.
Here are a few more tips to making great tasting gravy:
First take the measured fat and combine with the proper amount of
measured flour in a medium saucepan. Make sure you have covered all the
flour with fat and blended it well. Place on burner. Slowly bring
the flour and fat mixture to a simmer until it begins to smell slightly
salty. It will be bubbly; the color will be a light brown.
Next remove pan from burner; whisk in all the measured liquids.
Finally return the pan to the burner, again, slowly bring this to a simmer.
Remember you already cooked the flour in the fat so all you need to do
now is stir this until it thickens up to your liking. You can let it
stay sort of thin or let it cook out until it is thicker than your
Mashed potatoes. The choice is yours.
