How To Make Great Gravies?

Chalet nailed my next quest, how to make good gravies??
Start with breakfast gravies like white sausage & Red Eye.

I have found that using a chicken broth/beef broth opposed to water to thin it out make a heck of a gravy.

Simple cream gravy

One can Pet milk or equivalent
Bacon drippings
Flour, salt, pepper
Glass of water


I use a 8 or 10 skillet for us
Add bacon drippings to cover the bottom of warm skillet
Sprinkle flour to absorb the drippings
Turn up heat to sizzle the near roux you’re making
Add salt and pepper
Add a little water. Tablespoon at a time
Turn down heat to simmer and begin thinning your starter gravy
Stir stir stir. Scrape the bottom to prevent sticking
Add water milk water milk slowly, very slowly so no lumps
Stir stir stir scrape
Salt and pepper to taste
Stir stir stir scrape
It should finish a little thinner than you like as it will thicken on the plate

You can add sliced boiled eggs if you like. Great on French fries. Or biscuits.

How to make great gravies?

Simple, don't burn it....

grease from either sausage or bacon, add in flour til it clumps up, add butter, then start whisking in milk with salt and pepper to taste; once you have your consistency how you want it toss crumbled sausage back in and put over a homemade biscuit

I usually eyeball all my measurements for most of my gravies ... depending on the size of crowd I'm feeding.

Cream gravy:
about (<~key) equal measurements of oil (or bacon grease) and flour, to make a slurry and lightly brown to darker brown (depending on type of gravy) to make a roux. Once roux is the right color for the type, start pouring in milk (usually 2% since that's what my wife typically buys unless grandkids coming, then whole milk) while constantly stirring. Again, eyeballing the amount. I then add a little salt (very little!!! people can add their own after done), black pepper and a pinch (or 5 depending on quantity) of sugar. Continue stirring constantly until it starts to thicken up. When just a little bit on the runny side, remove from heat and continue to stir another minute or three.

an added twist, while browning the roux, add thinly sliced or chopped onion and continue to cook until they become translucent before adding the milk.

for sausage gravy, I usually brown the sausage before making the roux and adding it back in right before adding in the milk.

Two T spoons of flour per cup or two t spoons of corn starch.

again, eyeball all my measurements depending on size of crowd.

Brown gravy from roast drippings:
a bit of butter, some of the drippings and flour to cover the bottom of the pan. brown for a few minutes until smooth and light to medium brown stirring constantly. Add in additional drippings/broth along with black pepper stirring constantly and cook until the mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium (continue stirring) until desired thickness.

many times I add in too much drippings/broth and it won't thicken enough. I make a slurry of cold water with a little flour, mix well to remove any clots ... and stir into the gravy over medium heat ... this will thicken up the gravy mixture.

~+~+~

another recipe that doesn't use flour for brown gravy (also a bit clearer):

heat drippings/broth in a sauce pan over medium heat until hot and add in black pepper. Mix cold water and cornstarch with a whisk in a separate container until smooth. Turn up the heat on the drippings/broth and stir in the water/cornstarch slurry, stirring constantly, bring to a boil for about a minute and remove from heat.

Lazy, I just use the Pioneer mix.

Basically same as Cast....from scratch starting with bacon grease and flour.....

Me too. It is better than I could make from scratch.

You can buy gravy mix? That’s crazy.

Mine is pretty close to Casts except I use a 2 qt pot. or bigger if i need it. Dad always used a skillet but I always do better with the pot.

I've made sausage gravy from scratch all of my life, until about 4 yrs ago. I ate some at my Sister's house and told her it was the best I've ever had. Asked her how she made it & she handed me an empty Pioneer box. That's all I use now for white gravies, it's better than mine from scratch. My brown gravies from scratch are still better than store bought.

LOL

What we use and very good also!

I keep some handy for when I need gravy but im not cooking bacon. But it isn't better than my scratch gravy though.

Gravy mix???? Good grief, just when you think you know someone.

man that Pioneer peppered gravy mix is da bomb!

Pioneer makes it so easy compared to scratch, it also has great flavor.

Yes Sir it sure does, and it’s FAST!

That does sound better than flour, milk, water, salt and pepper...

Not

I'm going to add a little MSG next time I make gravy and see if it knocks anybody's socks off.

MSG = Makes Sweet Gravy.

Not doubting your gravy skills, but have you checked the ingredient list on your flour? It doesn't just say "flour." How about your bacon or sausage? It's impossible to get away from nutritional chemists these days.

Pillsbury all purpose flour ingredients -

Ingredients
Bleached Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Enzyme.