Boxing Day Turkey Gravy

The carcass is the best thing left in the kitchen on Boxing Day morning and most of it goes in the bin. Ninety minutes of unattended simmering while you clear up gives you a gravy with more depth than the one you made yesterday. It is what turns cold turkey and bubble and squeak into an actual meal.

Ingredients

Makes about 700ml, enough for six plates of leftovers

• 1 turkey carcass meat stripped, broken up
• 2 onions skin on, quartered
• 2 carrots chunked
• 2 sticks celery chunked
• 1 leek top or a handful of sprout trimmings
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 litres (3 1/2 pints) cold water or enough to cover
• 40g (1 1/2oz) butter
• 40g (1 1/2oz) plain flour
• 1 tbsp leftover cranberry sauce
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• sea salt and black pepper

Kit

• Large stockpot or preserving pan
• Kitchen scissors
• Fine sieve
• Whisk

Method

1. Break or cut the carcass down so it fits your biggest pan without sticking out. Kitchen scissors through the ribs are faster than a knife and safer than a cleaver on a hangover. Include the wing tips, the skin and any bits of stuffing welded to the cavity.

2. Add the onions, carrots, celery, leek top and bay, cover with cold water by about 2cm and bring it slowly to a simmer. Skim the grey scum off in the first ten minutes, then leave it barely bubbling for ninety minutes with the lid off.

3. Strain into a clean pan through a fine sieve and press the bones gently with a ladle. Boil the strained liquid hard until you have about 700ml. This step takes ten to fifteen minutes and it is the difference between turkey water and turkey stock.

4. While it reduces, pick over the strained bones. There is always more meat in the shoulders and the underside than you think, and it goes into the sandwiches, not the gravy.

5. Melt the butter in a separate pan, whisk in the flour and cook it for two minutes over a medium heat until it goes the colour of digestive biscuit. Do not rush this on Boxing Day, it takes two minutes and it is the only skilled part.

6. Whisk the hot reduced stock into the roux a ladleful at a time, keeping it smooth, then simmer for eight minutes. It should coat the back of a spoon and pull away in a clean line when you drag a finger through it.

7. Stir in the cranberry sauce and the Worcestershire sauce, taste, then season. If yesterday's leftover gravy is in the fridge, tip that in too, bring it back to a rolling boil for a minute and it disappears into this one without a trace.

Tips worth knowing

• Get the carcass into the pot on Christmas night before you go to bed, or into the fridge in a bag. A stripped carcass left out overnight in a warm kitchen is not worth the gamble.
• Sprout trimmings and the outer leaves are free flavour and they do not make the stock bitter as long as you do not boil it hard.
• If you cannot face cooking on Boxing Day, make the stock and freeze it flat. It will still be good in March.
• A splash of the leftover port or sherry from Christmas night in place of a little of the stock covers a multitude of sins.

Keeping and reheating

The stock keeps three days in the fridge or three months frozen. Finished gravy keeps three days chilled, cooled fast in a shallow tray. Reheat once, to a rolling boil. If any of this gravy contains yesterday's reheated gravy, use it that day and do not chill it again.

Questions people ask