Gravy - the best for Thanksgiving

Below is another guest post from my Mom.  It's her gravy!  The one and only, the best Thanksgiving gravy ever!  It sounds complicated but read it all through first, it's really quite simple.

Thanksgiving - The Gravy

This is always a monumental undertaking.  Thanks to the first time I made gravy this way, I seem unable to compromise and take any shortcuts. It is the best gravy on the planet, thanks to Julia Child's. I make the stock a day or 2 ahead.The first step is making the Brown Turkey Stock. You need raw bones for this - neck bones, perhaps the wing tips, backbones, etc.  Usually, I have chicken bones in the freezer from previous cut up chickens, and I buy turkey backs (sometimes the market has them or if you have a butcher you can ask ahead). So, it is important to have the stock on hand and helpful if you have made it previously and perhaps have it frozen.  So, the first step is the stock and here is the recipe:

Brown Turkey Stock

Raw turkey bones or chicken bones
2-3 tb clear turkey/chicken  fat or oil
Approx 1 cups chopped carrots
Approx 1 cup chopped onions
½ cup Vermouth or dry white wine
4 cups liquid - I use chicken stock from my freezer
2 celery stalks with leaves
Salt, pepper, 1 bay leaf, and thyme.

Brown the bones thoroughly in large frying pan in fat or oil, adding carrots and onions after they are browned. Transfer to heavy saucepan, leaving the fat in the frying pan. Deglaze the pan with the wine, bring to boil, scraping any brown bits left in pan. Add to saucepan along with enough liquid to cover everything. Add the celery and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming fat off the surface.  Add salt and pepper, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer for 1 ½ hours, strain, and set aside in frig or cold room to degrease.

So, now that you have the stock on stand by, you are ready to proceed with the gravy recipe


Old Fashioned Brown Gravy

3 tb clear turkey roasting fat, skimmed from the pan. This can be accomplished while the turkey is roasting.
¼ cup flour
3 cups of hot turkey stock (see above)

1 cup dry white wine or vermouth for deglazing the roasting pan
Degreased turkey roasting juices
Salt and pepper
⅔ tb butter (optional)

The gravy Base:

Make a roux with the turkey fat and flour, stirring slowly while the roux browns. The darker the roux, the more pronounced the flavor. Stir in the turkey stock, simmer for 10 minutes. Refrigerate this while the turkey is finished roasting.

Completing the gravy:

Deglaze the roasting pan with the wine, pouring the wine into the pan and scraping all the stuff into a saucepan, simmering for a few minutes and degrease, skimming off the fat, and pour through a sieve into a glass measuring cup, pushing to get all the juices out.  Put in the fridge or freezer, depending on how much time you have.  The goal is to get the fat to be firm on the top.  Remove the fat and save for next time.   Add the juices to your gravy base

Correct seasoning if necessary, adding salt. And, butter is always good.