I've made gravy a few times where I drain the cooking liquid from a slow braised chuck roast and then separate the fat. Afterwards, I take the remaining liquid and thicken it with a roux to make the gravy.
Do I need to separate it, which is a huge pain, or can I just use extra flour or more roux to emulsify the leftover beef fat? Or do I need to separate it and use the beef fat to make the roux instead of butter?
Posted Mar 2, 2021, 5:51 AM UTC
I always keep the drained liquid hit and add the slurry without separating the fat. I have never had an issue.
No fat floating on the top? Do you add a cooked blonde roux, or a corn starch slurry... Or?
Not the person you responded to, but I think I do it the same. Slurry a bit at a time, whisk like your gravy depends on it. It always works for me. No fat pooling, no lumps of uncooked flour.
The blonde seemed natural.
I don't separate the fat. The the flour emulsifies it as long as you don't boil it too hard. You don't need to add more flour either. Just realize your roux might look a bit thinner. The final amount of liquid being added is the same rather there's a bit to start or not.
Thanks! Well this is divergent, I'd love to do it this way! I kinda wish there was some more info on emulsifying a fatty liquid.
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Thanks for the input! Well it seems so far this shakes out as
Skim off some fat before making gravy: 2 Skim of fat before making gravy: 1 Separate completely before making gravy: 1
Lol dammit, I just wanna be lazy but I sure don't wanna make a roux gravy and end up with an oil slick on top! Maybe I should just continue as is and separate everything and make gravy.
If you skim off some of the fat to make a roux then you can just dump the rest of the cooking liquid in.
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Like instant potatoes? My favorite combo with pot roast is potatoes so that would be an interesting combo
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If you have time, I put all the drippings in a container and put it in the freezer. After an hour or so, all the fat is on top and solidified, all the broth is on the bottom and still liquid. Takes an hour or so overall, but only about a minute of work so you can do other things.
If you leave the fat, you don't need a roux. You need a slurry.
Separating is preferred because you can control the amount and type of fat for the roux.
If I keep the fat, I use flour and cold water in a blender bottle.
You take raw flour and the liquid and blend it to emulsify? That's a new one to me, though I made a recipe the other day with a ton of cheddar and was shocked it didn't separate on heating (serious eats broccoli cheese), guess you just need a nice blender. What about the taste of raw flour though? I can't stomach that.
Yep, just a well blended mix of water and flour, or potato starch, corn starch, whatever your preference. For gravy I like flour.
A couple tbsp of flour into say 1/3 cup of water. Whisk, and add to gravy while whisking.
The flour cooks in the hot gravy, so no raw flavour. You need to bring flour back up to the boil (or close to it) for the thickening to occur. So best to add less, bring to temp to check consistency, add more if necessary.
You would want to separate it. Only for the reason that the flour may mix with the residual liquid and become clumpy.
Thanks, that's what I was kinda thinking... upset I bought a 2 cup separator instead of 4 cups.
If anyone has an alternate take I'd love to hear it though. I've never had a roux gravy or mornay sauce become lumpy yet. Or if there's a good reason to discard the beef fat and use butter/oil for the roux gravy?
If you're not in a rush, just chill it for an hour or so. The fat will separate and solidify and will be easy to remove.
Aww I wish, usually I'm making it in a temperature adjustable crock pot so it is ready for dinner with mashed potatoes. No time for several hours for it to cool. I've done that before for other stuff, which like you say, it's so much easier. I was just curious whether I could emulsify it all together, like with a powerful blender. Or by itself with extra roux/flour!
Is there a benefit to using the beef fat to make the gravy with a roux? Or just use butter?
It will taste beefier with beef fat and it matches the cooking environment.