Creamy Turkey Gravy

Turkey is lean and its gravy can end up thin and slightly dull, which is why a little cream helps so much on Christmas Day. Make the giblet stock in the morning or the day before, and keep the cream to 100ml so the gravy still tastes of the bird rather than of dairy. It also has to survive twenty minutes in a jug on a crowded table, and flour is what makes that possible.

Ingredients

Makes about 800ml, enough for eight plates with seconds

• 4 tbsp fat and juices from the turkey roasting tin skimmed, keeping the dark residue
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 40g (1 1/2oz) plain flour
• 3 tbsp dry sherry or Madeira
• 800ml (1 1/2 pints) hot giblet or turkey stock made from the neck and giblets with a carrot, onion and bay
• 1 tbsp cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 100ml (3 1/2fl oz) double cream
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• The roasting tin
• Balloon whisk
• Sieve
• Large jug

Method

1. Make the stock first, ideally the day before. Brown the neck and giblets in a little oil, cover with 1.2 litres of water, add a carrot, an onion and a bay leaf, and simmer for an hour and a half. Strain it and keep it. This is the single biggest thing you can do for turkey gravy.

2. When the turkey comes out, lift it onto a board to rest and tip the tin so the fat pools in one corner. Spoon off all but four tablespoons, keeping every scrap of the brown residue.

3. Set the tin over two hob rings on a medium heat, add the onion and cook for six minutes, scraping the base constantly so the stuck residue lifts into the fat and the onion softens.

4. Sprinkle over the flour and stir it into a paste. Cook for a full two minutes, still scraping, until it turns the colour of a digestive biscuit. Undercooked flour is why some turkey gravy tastes pasty.

5. Take the tin off the heat, add the sherry, then return it and let it bubble away for a minute. Add the hot stock a third at a time, whisking hard after each addition to keep it smooth. Add the cranberry sauce and the thyme.

6. Simmer for ten minutes, whisking now and then, until it is glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Fish out the thyme and taste. Season it properly at this point, because the cream will flatten the salt afterwards.

7. Turn the heat down low, pour in the double cream and warm it through for three minutes without boiling. Strain into a warmed jug through a sieve, and add every drop of juice from the turkey resting board at the last second.

Tips worth knowing

• Make the gravy base up to the stock stage a day ahead and keep it in the fridge. On the day, reheat it with the tin juices whisked in and add the cream in the final three minutes.
• Keep the cream to about an eighth of the total volume. Turkey gravy that is a quarter cream stops tasting of turkey, and Christmas dinner already has plenty of rich things on it.
• Warm the jug with boiling water before pouring. A cold jug on a table takes a cream gravy from hot to lukewarm in a couple of minutes.
• If you are keeping it warm for a while, lay a disc of greaseproof paper directly on the surface. It stops a skin forming, which is otherwise inevitable with a cream gravy sitting still.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes for three months, which is exactly what you want on Boxing Day. It sets to a jelly when cold thanks to the giblet stock. Reheat with a splash of stock, whisking, and take it off before it boils.

Questions people ask