Types of gravy and how to make them

[Yorky]

Many years ago we went to a local restaurant (run by an American and his wife) for Christmas dinner.

It was a very strange experience for the Brits. Shredded turkey with white/gray gravy.

 

[Morning Glory]

In India, gravy is a curry sauce, I believe. That's my kind of gravy!

 

[medtran49]

I have never heard the term "yellow gravy" used when referring to gravy made with chicken drippings. It was either chicken gravy or just gravy.

 

[caseydog]

I have never seen that, what are you talking about?

Not as common in the South as it is in the Northeast. It's just gravy made with chicken drippings as the fat. I don't remember it being called "yellow gravy." I think that was someone's description in this thread. It does look pale yellow.

CD

 

[ElizabethB]

Ok, here's a little story:

Where I'm from, white/milk gravy is extremely popular, especially over (American) biscuits at breakfast time, and every home cook (typically a woman when I was growing up) was proud of her gravy, and every kid would tell you, "Nobody makes gravy like Mom!" We can get misty-eyed thinking about that gravy.

When I first started cooking at home, I learned basics, like cooking eggs. I made easy breads, moved up to other things, but I stayed away from learning to make gravy. That was in my mom's wheelhouse, she was the gravy maker, and that was that.

When I moved out on my own, and cooked more and more, I always had this mental block over milk gravy. I never learned to make it, and it became this almost mythical thing that only chubby little country moms could make, so I just figured I'd get good gravy when I went home, and that was that. You bet when I did visit, I ate a lot of biscuits and gravy.

More years went by, and I became a better cook, made more complex things, and regularly made dishes well outside the cuisine I grew up with.

Finally (and this wasn't that long ago), I tentatively approached my mom about how she made gravy. Maybe because she was feeling her mortality, she agreed to show me.

"Ok, now...get your skillet hot, but not too hot, and put in a little bit of bacon grease <spoons in four or five tablespoons> and let that melt. You want that skillet greasy.

"Once that's going good, get about the same in some flour and put that in there, and then stir it, oh, for a couple of minutes. You don't want to see no white from the flour, and you don't want no lumps.

Now pour in, oh I don't know, a good amount of milk, up to here <points to an imaginary line on the side of the skillet>, turn your heat up to get this good and hot, and stir and don't stop stirring, or you'll get them lumps, and you just keep stirring. And don't boil it, just simmer it. Stir and stir, and make sure you get all around the edge, because it'll stick there. And stir and stir, and after a few minutes, maybe five or 10 minutes, it'll get thick. May as well add your pepper now. You can add salt, too, but that grease is a little salty, so keep that in mind. Lots of pepper, though. You want to see the pepper all through it. "

"So, you're saying about equal parts fat and flour, cook that a bit, then your milk, and cook until it's thick?"

"Yessir, that's about it."

"That's just a bechamel sauce."

"Well, I don't know about beschy Mel, but this here is gravy!"

TR - are your roots in the south? The wonderful story you tell sounds like a "Southern Momma" trying to teach her transplanted Yankee son how to make a real southern white gravy.

 

[rascal]

Only gravy I ever knew was how mum made it, take roast out of the pan, pour off most of the fat, leave about 2 tablespoons far in pan, put it on the stovetop. About a teaspoon of salt and let it get real hot. Stir then pour 2 cups of vegetable juice from boiled veges. Then flour mix with water to thicken. Then my mum added gravy browning, dark liquid to colour. Perfect.

I do short cut using a mix store bought. With teaspoon of Vegemite. Cuts out flour and browning.

Looking at murican sites gravy and what we call scones are popular.

Russ

 

[TastyReuben]

TR - are your roots in the south? The wonderful story you tell sounds like a "Southern Momma" trying to teach her transplanted Yankee son how to make a real southern white gravy.

Yes, very much so. I'm the first generation of my family born in Ohio. On my dad's side, it's all Kentucky (by way of Tennessee, Alabama, and Virginia). On my mom's side, Pennsylvania (and Tennessee, and Virginia).

People are sometimes surprised by that, but southern Ohio is very strongly influenced by the industrial migration up from the south. That's how we got to Ohio.

Looking at murican sites gravy and what we call scones are popular.

They look like scones, and are made in a very similar fashion, though they're called biscuits here. Scones are a bit sweeter, but biscuits aren't sweet, and aren't really savory, either; more...neutral, I guess.

What we call scones are also scones, but a bit sweeter than UK scones. It's all so confusing. Makes you wish the American founders and King George III could have just worked something out and avoided all this foolishness.

 

[Mountain Cat]

Tasty, Mom used to make chicken gravy. It was never that horrid yellow stuff. It was always as brown as gravy for steaks. I think she roasted her chicken parts to make her gravy. lt certainly always tasted better, too.

Oh, and we hailed from the South. Born and bred in Kentucky.

 

[medtran49]

Tasty, Mom used to make chicken gravy. It was never that horrid yellow stuff. It was always as brown as gravy for steaks. I think she roasted her chicken parts to make her gravy. lt certainly always tasted better, too.

Oh, and we hailed from the South. Born and bred in Kentucky.

Yep, that's where I'm from, with extended family in Mississippi.

 

[TastyReuben]

Tasty, Mom used to make chicken gravy. It was never that horrid yellow stuff. It was always as brown as gravy for steaks. I think she roasted her chicken parts to make her gravy. lt certainly always tasted better, too.

Oh, and we hailed from the South. Born and bred in Kentucky.

Yep, that's where I'm from, with extended family in Mississippi.

Do either of you mind if I ask what area of Kentucky?

All my dad's people are from Madison County, which is where Berea is, and most folks familiar with Kentucky usually where that is because of the college there, but Dad is always quick to point out that he's not from Berea (pronounced "Ber-rear"), the family lived in an unnamed hollow on Copper Creek, which, understandably, they just called Copper Creek.

My mom's the first of her family born in Ohio. Her mom was from Pennsylvania and her dad was from way down in Whitesburg, KY, about the poorest part of the state.

 

[epicuric]

Ok, here's a little story:

Where I'm from, white/milk gravy is extremely popular, especially over (American) biscuits at breakfast time, and every home cook (typically a woman when I was growing up) was proud of her gravy, and every kid would tell you, "Nobody makes gravy like Mom!" We can get misty-eyed thinking about that gravy.

When I first started cooking at home, I learned basics, like cooking eggs. I made easy breads, moved up to other things, but I stayed away from learning to make gravy. That was in my mom's wheelhouse, she was the gravy maker, and that was that.

When I moved out on my own, and cooked more and more, I always had this mental block over milk gravy. I never learned to make it, and it became this almost mythical thing that only chubby little country moms could make, so I just figured I'd get good gravy when I went home, and that was that. You bet when I did visit, I ate a lot of biscuits and gravy.

More years went by, and I became a better cook, made more complex things, and regularly made dishes well outside the cuisine I grew up with.

Finally (and this wasn't that long ago), I tentatively approached my mom about how she made gravy. Maybe because she was feeling her mortality, she agreed to show me.

"Ok, now...get your skillet hot, but not too hot, and put in a little bit of bacon grease <spoons in four or five tablespoons> and let that melt. You want that skillet greasy.

"Once that's going good, get about the same in some flour and put that in there, and then stir it, oh, for a couple of minutes. You don't want to see no white from the flour, and you don't want no lumps.

Now pour in, oh I don't know, a good amount of milk, up to here <points to an imaginary line on the side of the skillet>, turn your heat up to get this good and hot, and stir and don't stop stirring, or you'll get them lumps, and you just keep stirring. And don't boil it, just simmer it. Stir and stir, and make sure you get all around the edge, because it'll stick there. And stir and stir, and after a few minutes, maybe five or 10 minutes, it'll get thick. May as well add your pepper now. You can add salt, too, but that grease is a little salty, so keep that in mind. Lots of pepper, though. You want to see the pepper all through it. "

"So, you're saying about equal parts fat and flour, cook that a bit, then your milk, and cook until it's thick?"

"Yessir, that's about it."

"That's just a bechamel sauce."

"Well, I don't know about beschy Mel, but this here is gravy!"

So your biscuits and gravy would bechamel sauce and scones? I thought rascal ate weird breakfasts, but at least he dunks his biscuits in a mug of tea

 

[rascal]

So your biscuits and gravy would bechamel sauce and scones? I thought rascal ate weird breakfasts, but at least he dunks his biscuits in a mug of tea

Can't beat dipping.

Russ

 

[Morning Glory]

There is a fascinating account of the history and evolution of gravy here:

Gravy | Encyclopedia.com

 

[caseydog]

So your biscuits and gravy would bechamel sauce and scones? I thought rascal ate weird breakfasts, but at least he dunks his biscuits in a mug of tea

Okay, you are confused by our food, it appears.

Biscuits and gravy (and sausage gravy) is made with buttermilk biscuits. They do look like scones, but they are savory, not sweet. They are soft and crumbly. You split them in half and cover them in your gravy.

White gravy is basically a béchamel sauce made with flour and fat drippings from bacon or sausage, plus milk or cream -- and often with lots of black pepper. A sausage gravy is white gravy with crumbled breakfast sausage in it. Biscuits and sausage gravy is the best, IMO.

Biscuits with Sausage Gravy...

CD

 

[medtran49]

Do either of you mind if I ask what area of Kentucky?

All my dad's people are from Madison County, which is where Berea is, and most folks familiar with Kentucky usually where that is because of the college there, but Dad is always quick to point out that he's not from Berea (pronounced "Ber-rear"), the family lived in an unnamed hollow on Copper Creek, which, understandably, they just called Copper Creek.

My mom's the first of her family born in Ohio. Her mom was from Pennsylvania and her dad was from way down in Whitesburg, KY, about the poorest part of the state.

I was actually born in Whitesburg, but for all but about 3 months lived in far western KY until mid teens.