!

[luvtocook]

I made the Woman's Day "Make-ahead" turkey gravy today, and it is a horrible, disgusting gloppy mess! What did I do wrong, and how can I fix it? It's not lumpy, it's a very smooth gelatinous mess! Is the fix as simple as adding more chicken stock?

I'm tempted to throw it away, but spent way too much time on it not to try a rescue.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Linda

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to all...and to all perfect gravy!!!!!

[Goin' Coastal]

I don't know for sure, but I think I would try adding some more broth and putting it in the blender to smooth it. I made it the other day, but I put it in the freezer after I cooked the turkey wings in the stock. I cooled it, removed the fat and then stuck it in the freezer with the intention on thawing it and than adding the remainder of the broth and flour.

Did you blend the flour well with the broth before adding to the cooked stock? Did you have the stock at a gentle boil when you added the floured broth? Did you stir constantly as you added the broth?

This is the first time I have made this and I don't want any surprises on Thursday!

Let me know how it turns out.

[beckms]

Could you post the recipe, so we can try to trouble-shoot?

[Canice]

Sorry I can't help (mine came out super-sweet ) but here's the recipe:





Recipe By :Woman's Day November 16, 1999
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Freezes Holiday
Make Ahead Must Try!
Poultry Sauce

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

4 turkey wings, about 3 lb.
2 medium onions -- peeled and quartered
1 cup water
8 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup carrot -- chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons butter or •••••••••
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 400. Have ready a large roasting pan.
Arrange wings in a single layer in pan; scatter onions over top. Roast 1 1/4 hours till the wings are browned. Put wings and onions in a 5 - 6 qt. pot. Add water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom. Add to the pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups), carrot and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 hours.
Remove wings to cutting board. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Discard skin; save meat for another use.
Strain broth into a 3 qt. saucepan, pressing vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables; skim fat and discard. (If time permits, refrigerate broth overnight to make fat-skimming easier.)
Whisk flour into remaining 2 cups of broth till blended and smooth.
Bring broth in pot to a gentle boil. Whisk in broth/flour mixture and boil 3 - 4 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper. Serve or pour into containers; refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.

Planning Tip: If frozen, thaw 2 days in the refrigerator. Reheat in saucepan, whisking often.

[schuh]

This is a very dumb, obvious point, but gravy can be liquid when hot and a gelatinous mess when it's cold. If it's gelatinous when cold, you merely have to heat it up.

Beyond that, 3/4 cup of flour strikes me as a lot of flour for 2 cups of broth. Maybe just add some more broth?

[Goin' Coastal]

You put the flour in the 2 cups of broth, but then you are adding it to the rest of the gravy

[schuh]

Duh. I thought that original 8 cups of broth really cooked down, if it only resulted in 2 cups of stock!

[vbak]

I made the make ahead gravy on Friday without the extra broth and flour, and it is very gelatinious, but it will thin when heated. I am going to use this to moisten the extra stuffing. I won't use it for gravy because I know that they will know it isn't the real stuff. I wouldn't make this again because it is very time consuming, very expensive, and it doesn't taste like rich turkey gravy.

Vicky

[meslgh]

If your stock is gelatinous when cold, that's a sign that you have a great stock!

[Jazzmatazz49]

Am I the only one who makes stock from a hen (chicken)since it's usually richer? I made the make ahead gravy and thought it was too much trouble. I'll just go back to making chicken stock and keeping some in my freezer, then making gravy at the last minute. Works for me.

[HUNGRY!]

I really liked the make ahead turkey gravy, but I agree that it was time consuming and expensive (the most time consuming part was finding the turkey wings I think). I'm brining my bird so I didn't want to risk a salty gravy.

I agree with the person who said it came out super sweet. I like that though, but I have no idea why it would be sweet.

[PC Lisa]

I made this gravy last night and didn't have any trouble with it, although it does require an investment of time.

I did not follow the recipe exactly, however, as I was suspicious of the flour/stock mixture not having enough time to cook to get rid of the "floury" taste. I just made a roux with butter and flour and then mixed in the turkey stock and it seems to be fin. I wish I had cooked my roux a little longer so it was a little darker -- I never like the anemic look of poulty gravy (so I added a little soy sauce to give it a little more color). Anyway, it'll definitely beat canned gravy!

[luvtocook]

Thank you all so much for you replies! I will try to fix it for Thanksgiving by adding broth. I figured out what I did wrong, and I'm just too totally humiliated to tell you. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!!!!!!!

Linda

[schuh]

Linda, you're killing me with curiosity...
Hope it works out ok.

[Wendy w]

Seeing the ! as the title of the thread, I thought that it was one of those "free play" ones where kilt pictures are sometimes shared.

May your future attempts at gravy making be successful.

[cab321]

Linda - please tell us what you did wrong...maybe it's the same thing I did wrong (still haven't figured that out and mine is down the sink now). I promise we won't laugh (or if anyone does, it will probably be because they've made the same or worse mistakes before).

Carrie

[Tizzylish]

Sorry this recipe didn't work out for some of you,and that it is getting a bad rap in this thread, I guess because I have made it so many times and tweeked it to my liking that is why I am so in love with it. I also didn't find it at all expensive to make, I bought 3 lbs of legs for $4.90, they were so cheap I bought two packs and made extra. To those who said it wasn't as rich enough, you might try adding an extra leg or two, it works great! I do that and make my own homemade stock from chicken's I have roasted in "dinners past", that I make a month in advance. Even if I hadn't our chicken broth here is 4 cans for $2.00, not to expensive in my mind. As to the flour, I thicken as I do with all my gravies, using wondra flour, I think it works better.

I really don't find it time consuming either, quarter two onions and some carrots, toss them and the legs with olive oil, and roast them for 1 1/2 hours, then toss in a pot with stock and simmer. While I am cooking the legs I cut up veggies for my crudite platter, while I simmer my broth I cut up veggies for my stuffing and saute that up. It may take time to make, but you can do other things while you are making the stock/gravy, it doesn't need babysitting.

Anywho, those are my 2 cents, I just didn't want others to be scared off by this thread, the method is a great time saver and also great for those who brine/grill/and deep fry their turkeys.

As a side note, Luv2, can I take a stab at what you did wrong? Reduced it to 2 cups of broth and added 2 cups of broth? My sister did that the first time she made it and didn't understand why she had a gloppy mess either, she thought she had to reduce the stock down to 2 cups. You are supposed to end up with 8 cups of gravy.

[luvtocook]

TizzyLish, you hit the nail on the head! That's exactly what happened! I was trying to do many things at one time, and didn't read the recipe correctly.

Next time I'll be more careful!

Linda