[Sca-cooks] Report on Thanksgiving experiments...OP

[Nick Sasso]

> -----Original Message-----
> Have I lived all my life without realizing that gravy is some
> sort of
> big mystery, or is my family just nuts? I mean, yes, they're nuts,
> but I wasn't aware of this particular facet of the group nuttiness...
>
> Adamantius

I'd suspect that many, many households do not use the homemade chicken stock
and mirepoix for the gravy. The pan drippings and a broth/stock from the
giblets thickened with some sort of roux or cornstarch slurry may be more
the norm.  I'm sure the brined turkey drippings were far superior to plain,
unflavored, especially with the mirepoix.

The 'gravy' we had at our meal this year was somewhat different than any
I've had.  The preparation involved evidently 50% too much cornstarch in the
slurry, and we got a very rich, flavorful turkey jelly that tasted good on
the potatoes, but sat up and wiggled at us.  No one wanted to correct it
with warm water and a whisk, so we have gummi gravy :o)

The saga of the sugarless cheesecake will also now be heralded for many
holidays to come.  Creamy and tangy . . . and totally devoid of any
sweetener.  Just takes one bite to know the deal . . . and the guests were
too polite to tell my dad it was wrong until he took a bite himself and
started laughing about his error.

niccolo difrancesco