Where do I go from here....

[Monique1]

I have a turkey in the oven (for the first time I am using a turkey bag) and I have the neck, giblets and heart and some turkey broth on the stove cooking - how should I proceed on making gravy. I must say my gravy is a hit and miss.

We are having a turkey dinner in our complex tonight and I am one of those who is roasting a turkey but I want to make some gravy.

Anyone here roasted a turkey in a bag before? I just didn't want to get the oven too dirty so I thought I'd try the bag.

[Warpy]

1. What's hit or miss about your gravy?

Personally, I think the smoothest flour gravies are if you do a roux first, flour and butter cooked together for a minute or two to incorporate them together and get rid of the raw taste. Then pour the warm stock and defatted pan drippings (deglazed with a little white wine, water or giblet broth) in slowly, whisking all the time to thicken evenly. If it's too thick, add a little water. Throw in the chopped giblets and there's your giblet gravy.

Generally speaking, the ratio is 1 T flour to 1 T butter for each cup of liquid.

The alternative method we all learned as children is to use the broth to deglaze the pan, then add flour to thicken. That can result in lumps and always results in a bit of raw flavor from the flour. Rice flour thickens instantly with no lumps but can give a gritty consistency if it's not ground finely enough. Cornstarch and cold water mixed together will also thicken the gravy but won't reheat as well. Potato starch can also be used as a thickener, but I have little experience using it.

Just make sure you get all the black and brown bits off the bottom of that roasting pan. That's where the flavor is.

[grasswire]

2. I've used a roasting bag before.

You may or may not get some nice brown drippings in it. Depends on how much liquid is in your turkey -- if your bird was that is injected with fluids you'll get lots of fluid but no brown stuff.

I realize this is too late for today, but if you buy a couple of turkey wings and roast them off in advance, you can make the gravy from those drippings and not have to wait until the big bird is done.

I keep these proportions in mind. 2 T of fat + 2 T of flour, and then 1 cup of liquid. Double or triple if you wish. Make your roux with the fat and the flour, and then stir in the liquid and cook until thickened, stirring all the while. I like to season with a bit of poultry seasoning and some finely minced celery leaves.

Go for it. You can always strain out any lumps.

[Tsiyu]

3. great idea with the wings

some add-ins while making the gravy:


salt plus one of these combos:


sage, pepper, tiny bit of turmeric

white wine, tarragon, onion powder and bit of dry mustard

poultry seasoning, giblets finely chopped

tad of strong coffee, cumin and thyme


As to lumps: one of my dear departed MILs got tired of me raving over her smooth gravy so she showed me her secret: the blender. :P

[pengillian101]

9. As to lumps: one of my dear departed MILs got tired of me raving over her smooth gravy so she showed

Hee-hee! Or straining through a sieve works well, to get rid of the lumps!

:hi:

[Arkansas Granny]

4. We've roasted many turkeys in bags in the past. We would pour the juices

into a pan, bring to a boil and thicken with kneaded butter (1 part softened butter, 1 part flour mixed to a smooth paste) added a little at a time until we reached the desired thickness. This doesn't dilute the juices like flour and water thickeners sometimes do. If the color is a little pale, we add Kitchen Bouquet a little at a time to darken the color. It imparts a little seasoning, but we use it mainly for coloring. I always chop the giblets finely and add to the gravy after it has thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

[Monique1]

5. Thanks for your help

What I did I put the juices and the broth from the neck, giblets and heart and refrigerated them - today I will skim the fat off the top and re-read here how to make the gravy.

Sometimes my gravy comes out great - sometimes it comes out lumpy.

Actually the turkey in the bag turned out very moist - but the turkey did not brown like I wanted. So, I went to broil it to get it brown - almost forgot I had in the in oven. Geez, my mind is going.

Thank you so much for responding.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. The turkeys we cooked in the bag always came out tasting great,

but, like you, we wanted a browner looking turkey. We've been using a method that I saw Martha Stewart do where you cover the bird with cheesecloth for the first part of the roasting. The meat stays moist and the bird looks beautiful.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/roast-turkey-and-gravy-101

Good luck on the gravy. As long as the taste is good, you can always strain the lumps out and nobody will every know.

[Duer 157099]

7. The science of the roux

It was only after I really understood this that I was able to make non-lumpy sauces and gravies.

The purpose of mixing the flour with the fat and cooking it a bit before adding any water-based liquid is so that the starch particles in the flour can be completely coated with lipids (fat/oil). This renders the particles hydrophobic (water-hating) so that the particles disperse in water-based liquids. If you just add flour to hot water (or broth or stock) the reason it will clump is because the flour particles would rather bind to each other than dissolve in water. Even a blender may not produce a smooth gravy if done that way.

So, if you want your starch to distribute evenly in a liquid, mix it with some fat/oil first.

[tigereye]

8. ah, that's a good explanation!