John Myers
If you want to make gravy yourself, you first need fresh gravy, as well as meat stock, flour, and fat. You will also need salt and pepper for seasoning. Save the roast juices and crusts from the Dutch oven you prepared the roast in. If you do not have enough liquid available, remove the roast stock with meat broth. The broth should match the type of meat being stewed.
Put everything in a bowl and wait until the fat has settled on the surface. Skim it off and check how much fat you have. You need the same volume of flour. Melt the fat in a pan or saucepan and sweat the flour in it over low heat.
When the roux turns brown, add the cooled meat juices or broth. Then stir everything together until you have a smooth gravy and let it simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes to cook out the floury taste. If you don’t have enough fat from the meat, you can use butter instead. Finally, season the finished gravy with salt and pepper.
You can thicken gravy with starch instead of flour. You do not have to prepare any roux for this, but mix the starch with cold liquid and only then mix it into the boiling meat broth with the fat.
If you have leftover meat bones, you can roast them in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for around 30 minutes together with peeled, roughly chopped onions, carrots and celery. Then add bay leaves, juniper berries and cloves and let the sauce and the broth simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours. From time to time, use a slotted spoon to remove the foam that forms on the surface. In this way, the gravy gets an even more intense aroma.
The gravy can be varied further, for example by stirring in tomato paste or deglazing the roux with red wine, sherry, Madeira or cognac. In addition, you can add mushrooms or other vegetables or refine the sauce with various herbs and spices.
