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

[Mike C. Baker / Kihe Blackeagle]

It strikes me, ye great bumbling oaf of a kitchen genius, that the gravy was
indeed that completely marvelous.

The description absolutely has me salivating, and considering just how much
of a failure I considered my last roast gravy was that really is something.

Yes, indeed, GOOD gravy is somewhat of a mystery and an accomplishment all 
by itself.  Any time I can come even within shouting distance of my maternal 
grandmother's better versions, I am a happy, happy cook.

(That roast gravy:  went with regular flour, not roux, NOT cornstarch, AND I 
flubbed the
flour proportions in thickening the drippings from the beef roast... the
gravy was still edible, but NOT one of my better attempts.  Too much celery
taste from the roasting drip didn't help, either.)

Adieu, Amra / ttfn - Mike / Pax ... Kihe

Mike C. Baker
SCA: al-Sayyid Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra, F.O.B, OSCA
"Other": Reverend Kihe Blackeagle PULC (the DreamSinger Bard)
Opinions? I'm FULL of 'em
alt. e-mail: KiheBard at hotmail.com  OR MCBaker216 at cs.com
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 7:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Report on Thanksgiving experiments...OP


<SNIP>

> So, naturally, about six people came up to me and made a point of  coming
> up to me and saying, "My... God... that... was the _best_  gravy I have
> ever eaten in my life!"
>
> Which, naturally, opens up a variety of touchy questions... I didn't  do
> anything bizarre to the gravy. It was just... gravy. Maybe my  version of
> acceptable gravy (I wouldn't have served it had it not  been acceptable)
> is unusual, but I thought the reaction was a little  extreme. Unless
> everything else was bad and people were trying really  hard to be nice?
> The only thing I can think of that was even remotely  unusual was the fact
> that the pan drippings from the brined,  unstuffed turkey were probably
> pretty powerful, and the stock I'd  used was homemade "meat tea" made from
> actual soup chickens. Brown  roux made with a mixture of butter and olive
> oil, and mirepoix (two  parts onion to one part each carrot and celery) in
> the bottom of the  roasting pan doubling as both aromatic and roasting
> rack.
>
> 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