Superior Gravy Steals the Show

     There is nothing more frustrating than hyper-ventilating over a sauce or gravy while your guests are innocently enjoying their aperitif, ignorant of the nervous break-down raging in their host's mind. Worries about how it will turn out, whether it will thicken properly, have lumps, be too salty or just plain bland.

    Inexperienced cooks will forego the gravy, maybe get a store bought; some will claim the "au jus" as plenty for the feast while others have adopted a gravy-less lifestyle because they never had the privilege of tasting the deeply soulful deal ; but I don't care which way you approach it: Excellent gravy/sauce is essential, PERIOD!

     It doesn't matter what the occasion, be it Christmas, Morten's Aften, Thanksgiving or just a great get-together. It is time to stop the worrying and time to achieve superiority. It is much easier than you think and you can do it well in advance of your feast; leaving plenty of room for relaxation and confidence on the day of your feast.

     Several weeks, even months before your event, purchase wings and drumsticks of the type of beast you are serving, if it is a non-bird, get cheap bones with cheap cuts of that type of beast. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (very hot!) oil a roasting pan, put the meat and bone pieces on (if you have wings, cut them along the joints and in other places, these bones have a lot of flavorful gelatin inside, which is great for your stock; you may want to use a meat cleaver....YES: get one!) , leaving a bit of room around each piece, salt the meat and roast it for about two hours (use your ventilation system). You will need for it to get dark brown (not black!) as this is where your gravy will get its color from. You may shuffle the bones around half way through the roasting.

     When roasting is done,  put all the pieces of meat and bone into a tall stock-pot, add a couple of onions cut in half (leave skin on, also for color, but make sure they are clean), break up a couple of carrots (same as with onions regarding skin), a couple of celery stalks, add 6-8 whole pieces of Allspice, 1-2 Bay leaves, 10-15 whole peppercorns, some Thyme and Rosemary.
Straddle the roasting pan over a burner or two, turn on the burners and deglaze the pan with 1/2-3/4 cup Madeira or Sherry. Make sure you scrape all browned bits off, as they contain tons of flavor and color. Add this to the stock-pot and fill the stock-pot with water so that the whole mess is about 1-2 inches under water.  Let this large concoction simmer for about three hours, skim the foam off the top occasionally and discard the foam. Let cool before you sieve. This liquid is pure gold and can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen ready to spring into action for 3 months. (Freeze in zip-lock bags labeled with measured amounts. Aside from turkey gravy, I also use it for making stuffing, instead of chicken stock, it gives much deeper flavor)

     This liquid gold is ready to be thickened and become a gravy, but if you still have time and energy on the day of your event, you may add more pan-drippings (after discarding fat) thus making an uber-uber-gravy. This is not to be found in a can, this is not to be found in a powder or a jar, THIS will steal the show! (In an unplanned emergency of dried out meat, it will give the moisture and flavor to cover it up, not that you will ever need that of course!)