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Post by yedneck on Jan 27, 2008 5:53:59 GMT 12.75
Am I doing anything wrong.When I go to make gravy after I fix sasuage I turn the stove down to low.I add flower and stir slow.Than I add milk stir and add salt and pepper.I stir until I get the gravy the way I like.Friends say they like it but to me the taste is kind of FLAT.ITS good but I think something is missing.Can anyone give me some ideas.Thank you
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Post by Paws on Jan 27, 2008 7:11:35 GMT 12.75
Am I doing anything wrong.When I go to make gravy after I fix sasuage I turn the stove down to low.I add flower and stir slow.Than I add milk stir and add salt and pepper.I stir until I get the gravy the way I like.Friends say they like it but to me the taste is kind of FLAT.ITS good but I think something is missing.Can anyone give me some ideas.Thank you What do you mean flat? You got a hankerin' for a lot of salt? If so it might just be your own taste buds. Generally if that's the problem it is because of a lack of minerals in your diet so try adding some mineral water or mineral oil to your diet. Get some zinc, iodine, potasium, phosporous, and magnesium in your body. It'll put lead in your pencil too. Are you bringing the gravy to fa full boil? If not you might not be getting the flour taste out of the gravy. Also, just for grins and giggles, I add a little onion powder, garlic powder and sometimes a little ham base to mine just to change it around a bit. Some chile powder once in a while too but use sparingly.
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Post by yedneck on Jan 27, 2008 13:38:52 GMT 12.75
No Paws I have never brought the gravy mix to a boil.I thought I was to cook it on low heat and than simmer with stiring.Dont understand any thing about the boiling part.I just add flour to the sausage grease stir and than add some milk with salt and pepper and stir until I get the thickness I like.So I must be doing something wrong.
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Post by yedneck on Jan 27, 2008 13:42:45 GMT 12.75
I am also trying to figure out how to make that white gravy mix for biscuts.Thats what had me start trying to learn how to make gravy.Just trying to learn.
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Post by Paws on Jan 27, 2008 14:24:44 GMT 12.75
You making Peppered Gravy or Sausage Gravy or Cream Gravy? For sausage gravy you got the approach right ut if you want it to be really nice and chalky white the after you brown off your sausage take it out of the pan and drain off the grease. Mix up about four Tablespoons of AP flour with a cup of milk really smooth. Put you two or three cups of milk into your pan and bring it up to hot without scorching it. Slowly add the flour mix stirring constantly until it is all in, nice and smooth and bring it up to a full boil. You don't have to boil it, just get it there. Reduce the heat and simmer to as thick as you like it. You can thin it with more milk if you need. Add you sausage back in and season it with salt and pepper to taste. That will make the gravy real nice and fluffy white for you. For Pepper gravy work it the same way just use a bunch of coursely ground pepper instead of any meat or meat drippings. For cream gravy ; here again do it the same way without meat or drippings. You may use half and half if you like or heavy cream but be really careful not to scorch it. Sometimes I'll heat up chicken stock in the pan and use heavy cream in my flour white sauce to add to the pan which gives you a nice cream gravy with good flavor. For most of my sausage gravies though I do just like you opened up this thread with; but, you must bring it to a boil to (1) kill the raw taste of the flour and (2) boiling brings the flour to the maximum thickening point. Once there you can thin it by adding more liquid or thicken it only by reducing the volume through slow cooking; unless you get fancy and mount it with butter or heavy cream!
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Post by Snake Eyes on Jan 27, 2008 16:45:42 GMT 12.75
No Paws I have never brought the gravy mix to a boil.I thought I was to cook it on low heat and than simmer with stirring.Don't understand any thing about the boiling part.I just add flour to the sausage grease stir and than add some milk with salt and pepper and stir until I get the thickness I like.So I must be doing something wrong. yedneck, I have always brought my gravy to a boil, while whisking. As soon as it comes to the boil then remove to a low heat. That's the way my mother did it.She said it made for a more consistent gravy. If using the ham base or any other type base as Paws suggest I would wait till the very end before adding any salt. Most of those bases are very salty by themselves.IMO snake-eyes
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Post by Paws on Jan 27, 2008 22:54:01 GMT 12.75
Yep you got to be careful about over seasoning gravy. You can start with the directions for the flavoring product and use what it calls for per cup of liquid used but remember that you are going to reduce the volume of the gravy and thus intensify the flavor of the product. With a little ;practice you'll get the hang of it. If you don't think your gravy tastes right you might test it on somebody else to see if the gravy is off or maybe it's your tongue! Try this out. Get yourself a pan, some flour, some butter or margarine and there is a difference cause margarine has more water in it than butter and of course butter browns/burns. Get some milk too. In your pan over low heat melt your butter/margarine. add an equal amount of flour. Say start with two Tablespoons of each one. Mix them together real nice and they will make kind of a paste. This is a basic roux where all white sauces and gravies begin. From this point forward it is just a matter of flavoring, coloring, and thickening to whatever you want. For a basic white sauce raise the heat to a medium and slowly add 1 cup of milk or half and half while constantly stirring. Continue stirring until the sauce is lump free and thickened. These proportions will give you a "medium" thick sauce or about the consistency of a cream soup. Add your seasonings (for a white sauce salt and white pepper) and you are good to go. You can use this sauce to cream vegetables just by combining it with the precooked vegetable and seasoning to taste. Try it with cooked peas and baby onions! Next time let the roux turn a little brown before adding the liquid and instead of milk or cream use beef broth. ( Got the idea? Experiment and learn from it. Flour is cheap!
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Post by Snake Eyes on Jan 28, 2008 0:31:53 GMT 12.75
yedneck, If I might add one other thought stir,stir and then stir some more.Don't let it stick to the bottom of the pan.One other thing I do is add real butter at the end and blend it in. I usually add about 1/4 stick,but add as much as you think your veins can take.It will definitely give it some added flavor IMO snake-eyes
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Post by BIG DOG on Jan 28, 2008 7:06:42 GMT 12.75
Thank you Thank you Now I have a better idea as to what I need to do.Big Thank you
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Post by Paws on Jan 28, 2008 7:14:23 GMT 12.75
Welcome there Big Dog! Glad we could be of some help.
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Post by trblmandy on Jan 28, 2008 15:50:38 GMT 12.75
I personally prefer to stick the mixes that u know u whisk in the water then boil andseason to taste. Believe it or not it comes out many times better then when i attempt the homade stuff! If they sell mccormick in your neck of thewoods try theirs and if my memory serves me right they have a great one for makin the white gravy for he sausage,bisquits n gravy. Me and miss addison have dang near licked the bowl clean. i have only met one man who makes the greatest homade biscuits an homade gravy that will make u wanna slap ur momma. but we havnt seen him in so long.
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Post by Two Tales on Jan 29, 2008 2:55:01 GMT 12.75
I'll sometimes cheat ya'll know them sausage seasonings that come dry packaged for making sausage...I keep a small jar of it in the freezer for making gravy some times...I often cook for a really sweet lady that has a wheat alergy so AP and all them others are out we use either corn/potato or rice starch to thicken and make gravy...soak that spice a tblsp or so in some warm water for about 30-45 min then, then fry up your sausage...use chicken stock or water to deglaze the pan after you drain the grease and remove the meat...add milk and bring it up to almost the scald, remove it from the heat.add the seasoning...make a slurry of the starch and add it to that..stir it constantly untill the gravy comes to a boil and reduce the heat...continue to stir until you reach your desired consistancy...if you finish with butter keep a close eye on it and do not let it over heat as this may cause the butter to brake and that's just plain nasty....add the meat back into the gravy and serve after the meat is hot...the reason to cook the flour or starch is just that, cooking it...and like all things grain it needs to cook to remove the raw taste...flours and starches need to reach 205 degrees F to start cooking...this usually takes about 5 min after the stuff is already hot...
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Post by Paws on Jan 29, 2008 4:08:17 GMT 12.75
Outstanding! Yes those mixes do work very well. I've been experimenting with them for backpack use/recipes and I haven't found a clinker in them yet. I've been getting some of the "cheapie" off brands too and they work just fine. I've tried mushroom, pepper, white, chicken, cream, and beef flavors that come in packages costing a half a buck that you mix with water and they are all terrific. You remember when they made gravy in restaurants with that "Kitchen Bouquet" that tasted like crap; but were good enough to serve? Well these packaged gravies are terrific compared to that junk. Some are as good as home made. (Except mine of course!) TT, I'm thinking that potato starch might make better gravy than flour! I don't like corn starch, and I know you have little choice, because of the translucence of the finished gravy except for roast beef dishes or maybe cube steaks. Somehow with sausage or chicken/turkey dishes the visual appeal to me is a turn off. Good info on the technical side there too TT! When I mount with butter or cream I turn off the heat "first" then whisk the added stuff in to incorporate and thicken. This keeps it from breaking and if it is needed you can turn the fire back on for a few seconds. Remember to check your seasoning after mounting and adjust if needed.
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Post by Two Tales on Jan 29, 2008 7:48:16 GMT 12.75
we have used rice and oat flour to thicken...and also pulverizes beans you are right about the corn starch being to translucent for some of the dishes the tater starch is not so much..however using the drippings and or milk will make it less so...until I started cooking for/with Grily Girl..I didn't come upon to many challenges in cooking that couldn't be fixed with either butter, spices or flour...we baked some bread yesterday...a couple of different kinds a savory Italian Cheese Bread and a mixed Berry Cinimmon Bread both were pretty good...we toasted the berry bread and added homemade cranberry jelly on top...nice treat...both were made from one of Bob's Mill bread mixes reduced by 1/2...I'll see if I can get that child to register and post the recipes for ya'll...we may need to start a "Glutin Free recipes" section By the way. I made venison neck stew for my skeet team this weekend and it went over great..thickened it with that tatter starch..works better than any thing I've substituted so far...
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Post by Paws on Jan 29, 2008 8:26:19 GMT 12.75
Gluten free! Good idea. Get her started and lay out your recipes so we can copy them to the recipe box in the appropriate areas. That way we can find them from a couple different directions. I'll also add a gluten free category to the rdcipe box so they can all be collected together with discussions or questions interrupting the flow of the thread.
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Post by Snake Eyes on Jan 30, 2008 0:44:07 GMT 12.75
Yep you got to be careful about over seasoning gravy. You can start with the directions for the flavoring product and use what it calls for per cup of liquid used but remember that you are going to reduce the volume of the gravy and thus intensify the flavor of the product. With a little ;practice you'll get the hang of it. If you don't think your gravy tastes right you might test it on somebody else to see if the gravy is off or maybe it's your tongue! Try this out. Get yourself a pan, some flour, some butter or margarine and there is a difference cause margarine has more water in it than butter and of course butter browns/burns. Get some milk too. In your pan over low heat melt your butter/margarine. add an equal amount of flour. Say start with two Tablespoons of each one. Mix them together real nice and they will make kind of a paste. This is a basic roux where all white sauces and gravies begin. From this point forward it is just a matter of flavoring, coloring, and thickening to whatever you want. For a basic white sauce raise the heat to a medium and slowly add 1 cup of milk or half and half while constantly stirring. Continue stirring until the sauce is lump free and thickened. These proportions will give you a "medium" thick sauce or about the consistency of a cream soup. Add your seasonings (for a white sauce salt and white pepper) and you are good to go. You can use this sauce to cream vegetables just by combining it with the precooked vegetable and seasoning to taste. Try it with cooked peas and baby onions! Next time let the roux turn a little brown before adding the liquid and instead of milk or cream use beef broth. ( Got the idea? Experiment and learn from it. Flour is cheap! Paws, When I have butter (which I usually do) I prefer the roux method of thickening. Picked it up from the old Justin Wilson(RIP) cooking shows.Damn I miss him...great cook and great entertainer. Occasionally can pick old episodes up on PBS. snake-eyes
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Post by Paws on Jan 30, 2008 2:00:47 GMT 12.75
Yes sir he was a Gem. They have a show on RFD called Cookin Cajun and they have hss shows along with a gal that does great Cajun too. I catch it every once in a while.
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Post by Two Tales on Jan 31, 2008 7:40:15 GMT 12.75
Yep I used to watch his show every chance I got...don't get that RFD here and when I mentioned it to the lady down at the cable comp...she looked at me like I had lost what li'l sense I was born with..hell, we're lucky to have CMT, silly assed NIMBY, Liberal Yankees....what the heck CT is patterned after Califonicate anyways....liked to watch Martin Yang also...I enjoyed his banter and cooking style..
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Post by Paws on Jan 31, 2008 10:04:18 GMT 12.75
Dish Network and RirecTV both have it TT.
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Post by trblmandy on Jan 31, 2008 11:09:38 GMT 12.75
ya'll ever thought or ever put a cook book together?
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