Gravy and roasting juice sauce

What the tin holds

Gravy begins with what the meat gives up while it roasts. The juices that run out of a joint or bird, mixed with the fat and the brown material that sticks to the pan, are the base of a brown gravy. Wikipedia's account of the sauce describes it as made from the juices of meats and vegetables released during cooking, and traditionally starting from the juices that run from meat as it roasts.

Brown gravy made from roasted meat or fowl drippings is cooked over high heat, often with onions or other vegetables. In the Great British Chefs version, the excess fat is poured off first, and the vegetables are caramelised in what is left before the wine and stock go in, so the browning comes from the roasting tin and the vegetables.

Reducing and straining

The method reduces the wine first, then the stock, to concentrate the flavour. Reducing by two-thirds, as the source directs, changes a thin liquid into a sauce that coats a spoon, and the reduction does much of the work that flour would do in a quicker gravy.

Straining through a fine sieve removes the spent vegetables and the thyme so that the finished sauce is smooth. The butter is whisked in off the heat or at the very end, which enriches and glosses the sauce. The source serves it in a jug alongside the roast.

Thickening with flour or starch

A quicker brown gravy is thickened with a slurry of water and wheat flour or cornstarch, while cream gravy combines fat and drippings with flour to form a roux, usually with milk as the liquid. These are different routes from the reduced sauce above, and the two can be combined.

Gravy powders, canned and instant gravies are separate products. Wikipedia notes that powders, canned and instant versions can stand in for natural meat or vegetable extracts, and the reduced sauce here is made from fresh roasting juices and stock.

Notes and gaps

The sources here give no holding temperatures or storage times for the finished sauce, so the page does not state how long it keeps or how to cool it safely. Such controls belong in a separate study of cooling and reheating. The quantities above are for six servings and do not scale without testing.