More Gravy Please…
Kait over at Kait’s Plate had this sugestion concerning my gravy woes:
I used to make gravy with cornstarch, but when I’d heat up the leftovers it ended up looking like gravy jelly. Not appetizing. Gravy is not supposed to hold its shape like that. Now I make it with a roux instead and it heats up better.
Pointless misspelling of common names asside, she has a point. A roux, for those of you who don’t know, is a mixture of flour and fat. You usually melt some butter in a pan and vigorously beat in a few tablespoons of flour, or if you’re making gravy you can just use the fat in the pan of what you’re cooking.
The nice thing about making a roux before you add the liquid to make the gravy is that you can control how “thick” the gravy is. The more you cook the roux the darker it gets(and the stronger the flavor). The darker the roux the less thickening power it has.
So if I took the exact same gravy recipe I was using, poured about 3 tablespoons of the fat into another pan and then slowly whisked in 3 tablespoons of flower, I’d have a roux. If I let that roux cook until it starts to get dark it will make a more fluid gravy when I add it back to the first pan which will reheat better the next day.
Good looking out Kait. And good looking too 
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
That is indeed the proper spelling of cornstarch. I’m assuming that was the reference?
Anyway, thanks for the shout out! Hope the tip serves you well.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Another good thing to do with roux if you make too much is to engineer a fucking huge chocolate eclair stuffed with loads of cream and cholesterol
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