Go to the Recipe: Turkey Gravy
why bread flour?
My guess (a wild one, at that) is that they cooked the roux a bit to provide flavor but still needed the thickening power. Since traditional roux loses thickening ability as its cooked, maybe the extra protein helps solve that.
Is there a sieve you all recommend to really bring out the smooth/creamy gravy texture?
I'm surprised that you make the gravy like that. I usually just take the drippings from the pan and adding about 1/4 cup at a time to a hot pan, cook it down until it is all caramelized. Then I simply add stock or water, season to taste and thicken it with a roux or sometimes a bit of cornstarch. It comes out tasting incredible with a dark rich color. Not hard at all.
Can this gravy be made gluten-free with xanthan gum or some other hydrocolloid mix? Do you use the bread flour in part not just to thicken the gravy but also to impart a toasted roux flavor?
You can use rice flour instead of the bread flour.
Or cornstarch. in a bowl, dissolve some cornstarch we some of the stock then add this mix to the rest and bring to boil. Start with a small quantity and do it again if not thick enough.
Why use MSG given the controversial nature? There are studies linking it to health problems, however definitive they are may still be up for debate. I will not use this so can you tell me how to substitute for natural sea salt?
I take it you don't eat parmesan, Neil?
There are absolutely no health problems with MSG. It is just one of the 20 amino acids that make up proteins. and one of the more common ones at that. The human body actually makes pounds of glutamate through its lifetime and it can be use as an energy substrate. MSG is actually safer than salt for people with high blood pressure. Please don't fall into the traps of the "holistic food" crowd.
We're doing Thanksgiving early and I made this yesterday for today's meal. Its fantastic! I'm so happy I can now make the gravy apart from the turkey, that's the main reason I've never attempted to fry or do other non traditional methods of cooking. I doubled the recipe but just didn't have room to double the amount of turkey bones and in fact it wasn't necessary. I used the carcass after I butchered the turkey and also some other bones and dark meat parts that I wasn't going to use elsewhere. I did add some chopped celery with the onion and garlic just because I love that flavor but otherwise I stuck right to the recipe. Great job developing this!
MSG is delicious...
I'd use a chinois.
Agreed! I just made it this morning (for tomorrow) and it is fantastically good. I was skeptical about the bread flour/"dump all the stock in at once" thing, but it worked great, and I love the sherry vinegar-- nice touch.
I can't eat the MSG - do you have any suggestions to replace it? I know if you reduce the salt in a recipe it really changes the end product and was wondering if leaving the MSG out will have the same effect? Thanks
This is a fantastic recipe. I was also making stock so I used wings, necks and backs instead of the bones and roasted them in a 450 oven till they were well browned. I then put them in the pressure cooker to make more stock. The fat and fond in the roasting pan then went into the gravy pan and I used some turkey stock from my previous batch to make the gravy. A home run all the way around.
My one hesitation was with the lemon juice since for me it can dominate even in small quantities. I used about half as much as the recipe called for and was pleased that I couldn't detect it as a distinct flavor. Maybe next time I'll try the full amount and see how it works.
Excellent recipe! I just made the gravy for Christmas with necks and back purchased for a few cents per pound. I used one of the backs to make the stock and the rest to make the fond. I found that there was too much butter to get the fond going so I drained most of the butter until the fond was well under way and then returned the reserved butter. The meat left on the bones was roasted in the butter until perfectly crisp. For a nice chef's treat, remove the bones, add some Maldon salt and crack open a craft beer! I'm presently making the "Modernist Cuisine" mashed potatoes. I vacuum seal the potatoes and then reheat in the Sous Vide on Christmas, It's nice to have the ability to not leave everything until the day of.
In case anyone else was wondering, we ended up just adding more salt and a little pepper. The gravy was pretty bland without the MSG added, so we just kept tasting it and adding s&p until it tasted good.
many of your recipes based on msg, with regret I have to admit that this is unacceptable. MSG is a chemical which is a highly toxic, and the application of its results, the shit will even tasted like dish from Michelin star restaurant. Cooking is not about adding of chemicals to eat, then we have in supermarkets. thank you
If you want more flavor without MSG you are going to have to work for it! I roast turkey wings and legs for about 2.5 to 3 hours until very dark brown and then start to saute carrots celery and onions in the saved turkey fat for 15-20 mins in pressure stock pot. (little garlic too and pepper). Once done I add a chicken stock and the turkey and pressure cook fo an hour, then strain it all through an hat. What I get needs no flour no nothing to be amazing. Add some herbs (to compliment your turkey herbs and spices) and reduce and final salt to taste. A lot of work but intense flavors! Like a demi glace in the end.
Agree!1! but it could be worst if you talk about dihydrogen monoxide!!1!
So sad to see people on this site so uninformed. MSG is not poison.
Awesome recipe, looking forward to making it tomorrow, how do you recommend reheating?
Guys... This is F@#%ing delicious. Every year I make thanksgiving dinner for my family. This year I thought I would scale back the number of dishes and concentrate on making a few things really shine. This gravy is going to do just that. I made it today (wednesday) and I am serving it Thursday in the hopes that it will makes even further tastierness over time. Would you guys recommend waiting to add the sherry and lemon juice until service? Or just add it now and add additional at Turkey time? Happy Thanksgiving Chefsteppers!
The one part I didn't understand was why after I had browned all those bones they weren't being used to enrich the stock. So I put the roux to the side and simmered my stock with the browned bones for a few hours....
I did the same thing, Jim, just not sure how I'm going to reheat yet! Sous vide gently or bring to a simmer on the stove?
Or sodium chloride!!! Gasp!!!
Me too! I made a quick stock, then added that to the roux. Great success. Many compliments.
Oooooh Mommy!
This! I spent 15 minutes basically boiling the meat in butter then decided to scoop off all I could. This made for much better browning. Maybe I need a wider pot? On a side note, when I added the reserved butter back in, I was surprised how much gravy this made. The roux didn't come together because there was so much butter. I was afraid I had done something wrong until I let it boil to thicken and tasted it. This was the first gravy I've ever made and it was PERFECT.
If I don't have sherry vinegar, what should I substitute it with?
Apple cider vinegar works great.
This was so unbelievably ludicrously good. Perfect accompaniment to ChefSteps’s SV turkey breasts, which I cooked at 131 for 24 hours, then seared off in oil and butter.
FWIW, if you’re looking to reduce dirty equipment: instead of a food processor and immersion blender I just used a countertop blender. After the roux, I dumped it all in and puréed, then added the meat bits and pulsed until they were chopped finely.
Just made this again (tripled the recipe quantities with a few exceptions - see below) for Thanksgiving. I think this might be the single most tasty food item I have ever made, it is that good. There are younger kids who never eat gravy who anxiously await my gravy each year. Tripling produced about 5 to 5.5 liters of finished product. It barely fit in my 7 QT There was enough to feed 30 people and still freeze 5 servings of 650g each. I tripled all of the ingredients except for the bones and spare meat used to create the fond and roux. At some point it feels like there are diminishing returns to packing even more meat into it. Because I was tripling everything, I did melt all the butter but then pulled out about 1/2 when I started browning the bones and meat as there was just too much butter soup. As it reduced a bit with the early batches then I added the rest of the butter back in over time so that in the end it was thick, dark and infused with goodness. So for a tripled recipe, the bones should come to 5.4kg but I only used about 4kg and it was plenty.
Tripled recipe also means a LOT of stock. I used all of my recently made pressure cooker chicken stock plus 3 more store-bought Quarts. I also used the immersion blender to blend in about 80-100g of meat from the bones. I think any more than that and it will become too pasty and fibrous. But with just a little extra meat there is such depth to the taste...
Could I use Ultra-sperse 3 to thicken it in place of the flour? If so, how much should I use?
Hi Andy, We haven't tried this out with the Ut-3, but if you are looking for it to be gluten-free, we have found that Mochiko rice flour works really well for the texture you’re looking for.
I am roasting a big bird, but doing it 9 hours from home. Can I make the gravy ahead of time using the neck and giblets and then just freeze and warm the gravy before serving?
I would recommend to just chill it down and keep it cold before reheating and not freezing the gravy.
Red wine vinegar.
I made a "boat" of aluminum foil (a large flat piece doubled over for strength, then all sides turned up to retain juices), put the gizzard, liver, neck and heart in it, sprinkled with seasoned salt, and put them all in my Cookshack electric smoker. I added the carcass bones from my deboned turkey, and the tail and the wingtips, and smoked the whole deal over 2 small chunks of apple wood (2 oz each) for 2 hours. Quartered onion, 8 smashed cloves of garlic, 2 bay leaves, handful of peppercorns, dash of rosemary, sage and thyme, kosher salt , diced carrots and celery. Simmered in the oven overnight at 225. Great base for gravy, and for Greek egg-lemon soup with turkey (Avgolemono me gallo)!
I'm planning to make the regular sous vide turkey this year (https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever). Is it possible to do the turkey, turkey stock (from the same turkey recipe), and this gravy all with one bird? I.e. break down the turkey, use the back, neck, wings, and giblets to make the stock, then use the same back, neck, wings, and giblets as the "bones and giblets" portion of this gravy? Thanks!
I've done exactly this, tastes amazing
Could I substitute the butter 1:1 with olive oil to make this dairy free?
You sure can.
Just finished making this for the third time...just wonderful. It's going to make the day tomorrow. I save up chicken bones and carcasses throughout the summer just for this as I do the whole turkey. So rich and delicious...takes me about three hours, but so worth the time.
Why would bread flour be better than the other types?
Bread flour is the most consistent flour and resists clumping making it a great flour for gravy.
Update: it worked but lacked a lot of depth as expected! I definitely had to use less olive oil. I think a lot of the butter evaporates in the cooking
can i use whole wheat bread flour?
Normal butter is a little under ⅕ water, which will all evaporate before it browns (as in this recipe).
How far in advance can this be done? 2 days before?
Up to 1 week. Stock will hold for about 2 weeks in the cooler when properly cooled and stored.
Would I be able to use corn starch rather than bread flour? I have some people with certain allergies coming for thanksgiving and would like to find the best options
Yes, you can use a cornstarch slurry to thicken. The application will change. You will add the slurry and boil to thicken. The amount of starch/slurry used will be different than the above amount for bread flour. More info here on thickening, https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/roux-vs-slurry.
Ultra-tex 3 is also a great gravy maker and can thicken in a blender without boiling. It is a modified tapioca starch.
Are some turkey/chicken bones/pieces better to use than others - like chicken necks or backs?
I use whatever bones I can - you are going to smash them open to expose the marrow so whatever bones help you to achieve that goal is best in my opinion. If you watch the video, they put a lot of bones in there.
Should there be a rest time after applying the transglutaminase and before cooking to allow it to bond?
I was under the impression that it took a little while to bond and became inactivated above 60 C (140 F).
