Spice up a boring roast or elevate a meal to a higher plain? Check out this Gravy recipe that may just hides the key to the soul’s gate!

Gravy may be a mystery to many outside of the English diaspora or for even those within who have only seen gravy coming from jars, bottles or powdery granulates, but it’s undoubtedly one of the unshakable pillars of roast meat based Western cuisine.

Gravy is a sauce originally made of the drippings of meat diluted with some liquid then thickened with flour or corn starch to the desired consistency.

It may look disheartening for the untrained eye but done well, gravy is not just able to mask the shortcomings of our cooking skills or the dull flavors of reheated meals but capable of working hand in hand with the best of meals, elevating it to previously unimaginable levels.

Sure, we need to do a little bit more than dissolving a couple of bouillon cubes in water or mixing hot water with gravy powder but the rewards for our efforts are substantially increase with each passing minute we spend to care for our gravy.

As it’s with every recipe growing out of its cradle, gravy too became more than just the drippings of meat contextualized with starch taking on various roles in the American cuisine.

Cream gravy or white gravy, that many of us know all too well from gravy and biscuit, is centuries old Béchamel sauce, mushroom gravy is a simple mushroom sauce steak fans already familiar with, and chocolate gravy should be well known to anyone acquainted with Spanish churros and chocolate.

Although, gravy’s interpretation of such roles are just as flawless as the original, its talent really shines through where its character development more pronounced, such as in the coffee diluted Red eye gravy.

It is most likely one of the most audacious gravy of the lot and a true pinnacle of what gravy is capable of if there’s enough love and care is given to it.

Yet, if we don’t feel like charting the unknown for unearthed gems sticking to the well known that were tried and tested through generations, it is rewarding enough to keep us sailing on various gravy waves.

Fear not for making mistakes, like using gravy powder or bouillon cubes when starting out and embrace the failure because that is what teaches us the most valuable lessons once we open our mind to it.

Ingredients

Beginner

1 – 4 pieces Bouillon / stock cube or powder (chicken, beef, vegetable or mix)
2 cups / 500ml Water (if bouillon cubes are not available use stock instead of water)
4 tablespoons / 60g Butter
4 tablespoons / 60g Plain white flour
Salt, pepper to taste but it will be hardly necessary as bouillon cubes are flavor bombs

Advanced

Drippings of some roast meat
2 cups / 500ml Water
2 tablespoons / 30g Butter / Cooking oil
4 tablespoons / 30g Plain white flour
Salt, pepper to taste if necessary but if the meat was seasoned properly, it generally isn’t necessary

How to make Gravy

Dissolve the bouillon cubes in water. We’ve just made stock. If we are on the next level, using original roast meat drippings, filter the drippings through the sieve to remove bits of things if desired then mix it with water.
Melt butter or use any cooking oil then mix in the flour until a uniform texture with no lumps and white specks is achieved. If it gets a slight golden brown color, it’s even better, that is roux, remove from heat and let it cool a bit, about 5 minutes.
Pour in the dissolved bouillon cubes, stock or roast meat dripping.
Put it back on the heat and stir or better whisk until a lump free uniform, thick texture is achieved. Adding more water will thin the sauce which may be required especially when reheated as the sauce thickens as water evaporates and cools off.