| The secret to making good gravy isn't hard, but there are a few rules
that must be observed.
Proper gravy is a mixture of water and fats, with various other
items acting as flavourings. This is very important to realise, as
gravy made from water alone will never have that all-important
wow factor.
If you're not vegetarian this should be easy: use the juices that
have flowed from your joint of meat to provide the fats for the gravy.
If you don't have any meat, use the fat in which you roasted your
potatoes or from any of the rest of your cooking. At a push you will
have to make do with previously unused fat: in this case a hard fat
such as lard is vastly superior to an oil.
Slowly heat the fat, along with whatever bits and pieces you have around:
unidentifiable things that have come off your chicken, maybe throw in
an onion, whatever. Add water, slowly. Don't wait until the fat is
boiling before you add water to it: this is a very bad idea. Keep
stirring constantly, the oil and water will be trying to separate but
you mustn't let them. As the juices start to boil add your stock cubes,
gravy granules or if you want to be more traditional, cornflour.
Keep stirring as the gravy thickens up: proper gravy should be of a
consistency not much less viscous than custard. There are a few
abnormal people who like their gravy to be runny: they are
not to be trusted under usual circumstances but can be catered for by
putting their gravy in a separate container and adding boiling water
from a kettle.
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