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| Thick | 81% | 307 votes | Total: 379 votes | |
| Runny | 19% | 72 votes |
Thick
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Add to FavoritesWithin the course of many discussion over holiday meals with plenty of excessive gravy on the fancy Holiday table cloth one can only imagine how much easier it would be to avoid if you used thick gravy instead of the normal runny stuff often out of a can or lacking of a good thickening rue.
I am not talking about that classic so lumpy that it falls out of the gravy server in splashes onto your clothes as you pour. I am thinking about the wonderfully thick gravy in a deep brown color that both flows well and sticks to the lumpy mashed potatoes, stuffing and even the dry white turkey meat.
The kind of gravy akin to that of sausage gravy on biscuits or toast in the mess hall back in the 1980's when I was in the Army. The thick quality of this brownish delicacy was without match even at my grandmother's house on the holidays earlier in my life.
We often think back to the 1970's for those of us that old when we got together and played games while still eating turkey, dressing and even cold mashed potatoes with even thicker Luke warm gravy. While laughing and playing games, assembling those classic toy garages, doll houses and even an occasional hot wheels extravaganza of old.
Why do I keep bringing up all the other memories when I think of thick gravy? Because those are the things that bring back those days of the thick, slow flowing brown heaven out of the turkey roaster with little bits of dark meat and even some skin occasionally mixed in gravy that my grandma used to make.
The family split at two tables, the adults at one table and the kids at another begging for seconds just as the parents were barely getting started often as kids rarely waited for grace before devouring the overflowing plate of yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes, potato salad, ambrosia, turkey, ham and of course the delightfully thick gravy.
All too often by the time it was passed around half way around the table the gravy boat was empty and someone had to make the next trip to fill it up with that delicious enticing flow of the delicious brown gravy. Not the canned stuff that's for another discussion entirely as all too often those are barbaric in nature and very very pale, thin in mass. Not the kind worthy of a grandmother's love on the holiday table those are the things are made for a fable.
Thin gravy for some is the passion that they feast upon and with each passing year I have had many to taste. But, with each and every holiday feast the one thing I wish for, the one thing I miss is grandma's delicious holiday treasure her poignant yet simple, heavily thickened, lump-less delicious gravy supreme.
Learn more about this author, J. Lee Kenser.
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Runny
The great thing about cooking is that it is an art; anyone can take their perspective on anything and create to their hearts desire. Cooking is derived from passion and if you follow your hearts recipe then you can never be wrong'. Besides, variety is the spice of life.
However, gravy I get a little nit-picky about. Mostly because as a professional chef and saucier I know how to make a proper gravy, and it is not about thickness, it is about viscosity.
If you get most of your cooking knowledge from Rachel Ray or Emeril you will have no idea what I am talking about. So I will give a little background. Viscosity is defined as the resistance of a liquid to flow (a.k.a. its thickness). And when attached to a percentage it is used to define how much thickening agent should be added to an amount of liquid to create gravy. Traditionally in Classical French and Traditional European cuisines an 11.5% viscosity is used in all gravies and sauces. This percentage was derived by Aguste Escoffier, one of the world's most famous culinarians.
Of course, this percentage can only be obtained when making homemade gravies and is pretty simple. When making gravy from scratch you start out with a certain amount of stock. To get the viscosity percentage you multiply the amount of stock by .115. That is how much roux you will need to thicken the gravy. Roux is a 50/50 mixture of flour and butter and is made by melting the butter and then stirring in the flour over medium heat until it is golden brown (will smell like peanut butter when done and should have the consistency of wet sand). Let's say you have 10 cups of stock you need to thicken, multiply that by .115 and you get 1.15. So you will need 1.15 cups of roux (A little more than a1/2 cup of butter and cup of flour).
Once your roux is made add it to the stock and add flavorings as you see fit. When adding it to the stock you want to make sure there are no lumps in your gravy. So use a whisk and run it all over the bottom of the pan to ensure smooth gravy. Also, with roux you can sometimes get an undesired floury flavor. If you allow the gravy to simmer for 20 minutes there will be no trace of a floury flavor in it.
But how can you tell when you have reached 11.5% viscosity? You need to coat the bottom of a spoon with your gravy and then turn it over and run your finger through the liquid. If the sides of the path you just made through the gravy slowly move back to the center you are pretty close to 11.5%.
That is how proper gravy is made and as far as a thickness, 11.5 is thin gravy. So seeing as how this is the proper way to make gravy; thin or "runny" is preferred to thick gravy.
Learn more about this author, Joseph Kelley.
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