Expedient Turkey Gravy – Apologies to Julia Child (J. Folsom, December, 2024)
At almost every large family dinner when Turkey has been served (Thanksgiving and Christmas), I’ve roasted the turkey and made gravy based on Julia Child’s recipes for Dinde rôtie au four (Roast Turkey) and her Brown Turkey Stock and Turkey gravy (pgs 232-238, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, 1975) The gravy has been a success.
When Mother made her single trip to SoCal many years ago, she even liked the gravy, asking how I made it. After recounting the Julia Child version, she said it was good, but not worth that much bother. Truth is, it comes across as more complex than reality because Child’s gravy stock recipe was wrapped up in roasting the turkey, with some of the ingredients doing double service. For example, she has you brown the root vegetables for the stock, which you then extract to use for flavor in the cavity of the turkey.
With retirement to Florida, our holidays have been downsized to fewer guests at the table. Finally this year I relented and moved to cooking turkey breast rather than the whole bird. Since Deb doesn’t like dark meat and leftover breast yields to better use later (turkey hash, or simply turkey sandwiches), this has been proven a good change.
It means, however, there isn’t a whole turkey with so much skin, bone, fat, and extra flesh to generate the stock needed for a decent amount of gravy. The gravy, then, has become its own dish. This turns out to be a blessing. As a separate preparation, the gravy isn’t nearly so complex-seeming as when it’s part of a turkey roast. And I’m free to make the gravy a day or two in advance, a significant simplification when the goal is to fashion a feast.
Ingredients:
Turkey necks & wings, a pack of each (3-4 lbs) sold separately and relatively inexpensively around the holidays. If you see them in a store, maybe pick up and freeze a few packages. They aren’t always available. Also, you’ll need:
- Carrots
- Celery
- Onion
- Olive Oil
- Salt, Pepper
- Vermouth or some dry white wine
- Packaged broth or stock, maybe a Knorr pellet also
- a Heavy Skillet or roasting pan
Drizzle some oil in the skillet or pan and turn on the heat. Heft in the necks and wings (I don’t bother to cut them smaller; it makes them easier to discard later and keeps me from contaminating work surfaces). I start this on the cooktop, on high, while dusting the meat with a liberal dose of salt and pepper. Once they turkey parts are beginning to brown, I move the pan to the oven, where they will have a long tenure at around 300 F.
After roasting until the necks and wings begin to brown and have rendered some fat, I toss in coarsely-chopped onion, maybe two onions – just quartered. A bit later I will add celery stalks, cut into lengths, at least two stalks (petioles), and some chunks of carrot, maybe 2 inches each.
I’ve cut down on the amount of carrot incorporated, finding that adding too much makes the resulting broth seem too sweet and distinctly too carrot-tasting. So maybe just 3 or 4 carrot sections.
This amalgam continues roasting, with an occasional stir to ensure browning is even. Take a bit of precaution; there is a point of over-cooking, though well down the line. To me, bones that cook too long take on an unpleasant, burned taste, so don’t go to an extreme, like don’t roast more than 5 hours, or overnight.
After as much time as I can allow, at least a couple, perhaps even three or four hours, I will deglaze with Vermouth (a half cup or so, no more)…., too much wine adds a somewhat-bitter taste that’s difficult to cook out….
I follow the wine with 3-4 cups of broth. I’ll heat this briefly on the cooktop to make certain the bits and pieces are incorporated pieces (the word “fond” has become trendy.) Then I transfer everything to a stock pot, add more broth and simmer for quite a while, having tossed in a Bay Leaf and a goodly dash of Thyme. Neither Deb nor I care for Sage, so that herb isn’t invited to the party, but Thyme seems to bring that harvest taste we associate with the holidays.
That’s it, pretty much. If you feel more gravy will be needed, boost the liquid with added broth as liquid evaporates. You even may feel the need to toss in a Knorr chicken tab or some chicken Better Than…. Be careful though. Those concentrated pastes rely heavily on salt, and it’s too easy to over-salt the final gravy. Often, by this point, the stock has been bubbling on the back burner (or even in the oven) and it’s gotten late, so I will bring the stew to a brisk boil, keep the lid on, and let it cool overnight. It’s too much volume for our frig. First thing the next morning I’ll bring it back to a boil to keep down any bacterial issues.
By the time you need the gravy for dinner or in the evening (for use the next day), when the stock has a nicely-rich flavor, it’s a straightforward task to pull out the turkey and veggies, strain the liquid, separate the grease, and thicken the gravy. I use a Chinese colander for separating and straining, placing the colander over some wide receiver and ladling on the stewed parts and pieces. At this point, I let it cool a moment and feel compelled to pull off any meat that might be rescued. Unfortunately, I find that’s hardly worthwhile. Having tried to tempt the cat with freshly cooked turkey, I always find Rose will not touch it. And honestly, after such a lengthy cooking, you’ve extracted so much of the flavor from the dark meat that it isn’t a great treat. The bones, fat, and flesh get packaged and discarded immediately. You don’t want them lingering in the 13-quart tall kitchen trash receptacle.
Gravy: Use a separator to float grease away from the broth, returning the broth to the pot or a sauce pan. Reserve about a quarter cup in which to dissolve corn starch for thickening, blending in two to three T of cornstarch. As the broth comes to a boil, I add the cornstarch mixture incrementally, until the gravy is the consistency I like. Don’t discard the remaining cornstarch mix yet; there might be some last-minute adjustment. But in general, the gravy continues to thicken as it sits, so I leave it (and even serve it) a bit runnier than other people might, somewhere between a sauce and an au jus.
Note, the many advantages of making gravy as stand-alone. You can do all of the work in advance, even a day or two before serving. This gets all of the prep out of the way, as well as the cleanup. And it frees the cooktop, oven, counters, and sink for other fixings.
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