Classic Beef Roast Gravy

This is the gravy most people are actually after when they say they want gravy. Nothing clever in it, just beef fat, flour, the burnt-on bits from under the joint and enough stock to make it pourable. Get this one right and you will never buy granules again.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, enough for six generous plates

• 3 tbsp beef fat from the roasting tin top up with beef dripping if the joint was lean
• 2 tbsp (30g) plain flour
• 700ml (1 1/4 pints) hot beef stock fresh, or a good cube dissolved in boiling water
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp redcurrant jelly optional, rounds off the edges
• sea salt and coarse black pepper

Kit

• Roasting tin
• Balloon whisk
• Fine sieve
• Jug

Method

1. Lift the beef onto a warm plate or board, cover loosely with foil and leave it to rest for at least twenty minutes. Everything that pools out of it while it rests goes into the gravy at the end, so rest it somewhere it can be poured from.

2. Tilt the roasting tin and spoon off the clear fat that rises to one corner. You want to leave about three tablespoons of fat and every scrap of the dark sticky residue stuck to the base. If you take too much off the gravy will taste thin, if you leave too much it will sit greasy on top.

3. Put the tin over two hob rings on a medium heat. When the fat starts to shimmer, scatter in the flour and whisk or stir it hard into the fat until you have a smooth paste the colour of wet sand.

4. Cook the flour for a full two minutes, keeping it moving so it does not catch. It should smell biscuity rather than raw and darken a shade. This is the step people skip and it is why home gravy sometimes tastes of flour.

5. Pour in about a quarter of the hot stock and whisk immediately and firmly. It will seize into a thick lump for a few seconds, which is normal. Keep whisking until it is smooth, then add the rest of the stock in two goes, whisking each in before the next.

6. Scrape the base and corners of the tin with the whisk or a flat wooden spoon as it comes up to a simmer. The dark crust should lift off and dissolve into the liquid, taking the colour from beige to proper brown.

7. Simmer for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then, until it coats the back of a spoon and you can draw a clean line through it with your finger. Add the Worcestershire sauce and the redcurrant jelly and let the jelly melt.

8. Pour through a fine sieve into a warm jug, pressing the solids with a ladle. Stir in any juices from the resting board, taste, then season with salt and plenty of coarse black pepper. Roasting tins carry a lot of salt already so taste before you reach for the pot.

Tips worth knowing

• Use two hob rings if the tin is big. One ring under a long tin gives you a burnt patch in the middle and raw flour at both ends.
• Hot stock into a hot roux, cold stock into a cold roux. Mixing the temperatures is the fastest route to lumps.
• If the gravy tastes flat rather than under seasoned, it usually needs acid, not more salt. A teaspoon of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon wakes the whole thing up.
• Keep a stub of beef dripping in the fridge for lean joints. A very trimmed topside can give you almost no fat at all.

Keeping and reheating

Cool quickly, then keep covered in the fridge for up to three days or freeze for three months. Reheat gently in a pan with a splash of water and whisk as it comes back up, as it will have set to a jelly.

Questions people ask