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Gravy

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Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup AP flour
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 cup broth or stock see #1 below

Instructions
 

  • Melt the butter on medium-low heat.
  • Slowly sprinkle the flour into the butter, and constantly whisk until you have a paste. Add the pepper halfway through. This step should take 1-2 minutes.
  • Slowly pour the liquid into the flour&butter mix (roux), and keep whisking. Keep whisking until perfectly smooth, and no clumps.
  • Keep cooking and slowly whisking until the gravy reaches the desired thickness. See #2 below

Notes

  1. If you have liquid from a roast, or anything resembling a broth, you can strain it, and use directly.
    If you are working with a roasting pan that has lovely bits of meat&veg stuck to it, or especially in a stainless steel pan (fond), you can deglaze with any flavoured liquid, whisk everything together until smooth, and use this magical sauce to build your gravy. Traditional pan drippings that are deglazed are just emulsified with a few chunks of cold butter, but the flour and/or cornstarch help to thicken up the sauce more quickly (think gravy version of mayo, but not gross).
  2. In general, 1.5 tablespoons of corn starch is used for every 2 cups of gravy . Mix the cornstarch with some of the gravy separately, whisk it until completely smooth, then whisk that into the gravy. Whisk is the word of the day. You want to cook the thickened gravy for around 5 minutes to get rid of the starchy flavour. You can keep cooking to let this thicken up, but time is the main factor at this point. If you need thick gravy instantly, you can add more cornstarch, but when it cools down, it will turn into something resembling Jello.