à Flannagáin
Well-Known Member
Anyone got a good stout gravy for potatoes, beef, anything? My brother and I attempted a guinness gravy with no luck.
Chris
Chris
zoebisch01 said:Hmm, well to begin with you need the true flavor of the gravy to come from some kind of meat so to seperate the 'gravy' from the dish is kind of hard. What I mean by that is you need all the browned/carmelized flavors that accumulate on the pan to be released. This will form the base of the flavor, and the method of releasing them is referred to as deglazing.
So you take your roasting pan that beef, pork, chicken etc has been roasting in (or your skillet from the stovetop), remove the meat and then hit it with the beer to deglaze. The pan should be fairly hot, but not smoking as you don't want to burn anything. I would suggest by beginning with a small amount (4 oz or so) of beer to start. One of the major things about cooking with beer is the hop bitterness is magnified when you reduce it. So deglaze with your 4 oz of beer and then add some stock (try about 2 cups). I would go with brown (beef) stock since you are shooting for a stout gravy. When this comes up to a simmer, taste it and if it needs more beer then add some.
If the flavor seems good and you want a thick-er gravy you can do several things in this case. One is to thicken using a Roux. This will give you a more rich flavor. Second you can use a starch slurry. Cornstarch is the easiest. Basically about 1 Tbs in some cold (must use cold) water, swirl it and then wisk it into the hot (must be hot) pan liquid. Same procedure for Roux. Start a little at a time, letting each addition get cooked to create the thickness effect.
The last method is that you can just reduce the gravy (evaporate it on med-high heat) until it becomes thicker, although if there is little body to begin with you really don't get much in the end unless you are doing a cream reduction. Be careful though if you do a reduction as the hop bitterness can really bite through.
seefresh said:Holy cow, what an awesome post. I saved this one on my computer to have it forever. I've made a gravy for thanksgiving with the leftover turkey juice and squishy things in the pan, was not to hard, just added some flour, salt, pepper and a little rosemary and simmered to appropriate thickness. I've looked all ove rthe web for the basics of making gravy, and you definitely hit the nail on the head. Thanks a ton! GOtta experiment now.
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