Help! - Need gravy advice

I haven't made gravy from scratch in years. My family doesn't really eat it much, just a little dribble over the mashed potatoes. I usually cheat and buy the Boston Market turkey gravy. This year I forgot. The turkey is in the oven, how the heck do I make gravy with the drippings. I remember something about mixing flour with cold water, but that's about it. Any suggestions are more than appreciated.

Not elegent, but it works. If it needs more thickening, add more of the flour/water mix. Be sure to season this well, as the flour taste may linger.

As I said, that method works .... but ......

A better way is to make a roux and add that to the stock until it is where you want it for thickness.

Isn't it a butter flour mixture? I hate to show my ignorance.

you mix equal parts butter & flour together. You want to make sure you've completely blended the flour & butter together. Then drop it in by teaspoons & stir. Bring your drippings to a boil, then drop the balls in & let it simmer. It takes a little while because it needs to break up & the flour needs to cook. Better to add a little at a time & wait & simmer, then add another if you need to. A good rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon flour & 1 tablespoon butter to thicken 1 cup of liquid. That's just a rough quide, so add a little less.

Again, I think that's what he's talking about, but I've always called it beurre manie.

Same ingredients, actually, just made differently.

A roux is roughly equal parts fat and flour, cooked until nutty smelling.

The fat can be pan fat from a roast, butter, oil, chicken fat ...... any fat. The flour is .... flour. :)

In a dry pot, add the fat. Drop in the flour a bit at a time and stir constantly. Add the flour until it is all absorbed by the fat. Continue to stir and cook until it gets a nice nutty smell to it. It will be a light golden color and about the consistency of wet beach sand. You can cook it longer and allow it to go quite dark if you're making a dark gravy or sauce. Just keep stirrg it cuz if ya don't, it will catch and burn.

Now, used classically, liquid is added to the roux in small amounts (like by the tablespoon) until it is tripled or so in volume and nice and smaooth. Then you continue to add the liquid, but more at a time than before. Continue to add liquid until you have the thickness you want. Note that the liquid should be a fully flavored item, like seasoned stock (broth) .... not just water.

Your idea about the buerre manie is also a good alternative to thicken a liquid like pan drippings.

In the case in the OP, either will get the cook to the same place.

but where I got confused is using butter when she has turkey fat. :shrug: So I thought you were telling her to thicken it with beurre manie.

I assumed (obviously wrongly so) that she knew what a roux was.

To be perfectly proper about her fix, it would have been to skim off the pan fat, make the rouux from that, and then recombine it with the remaining drippings.

Making a separate roux and adding it to the pan would also work. It adds more flavor (the butter) but that may or may not be wanted.

Not the world's best but definitely edible. I did heat the butter and flour for a while before adding it to the stock. I knew I had seen roux discussed here, but when I did a search it pulled up several threads and I didn't have the luxury of time to find my answer. You guys are the best!

is deglazing the pan with a mixture of 1/4 wine and 3/4 water, then using a rice flour (I think Wondra may be one store brand, not sure) which dissolves instantly with no lumps and thickens the gravy very nicely. It just skips that "mix flour and water" step that can still leave lumps.

I use a very weak wine mix when I'm making pan gravy, as I want the flavor of the drippings to be front and center, with the wine an undertone.