RealGravy

Stock and Bone Gravies

Overnight Stock Gravy

Bones and water into a low oven at bedtime, out at breakfast, with a clean set stock and no risk of it ever boiling.

  • Contains meat
  • overnight
  • oven method
  • beef
  • hands off
  • bone stock
Illustration of Overnight Stock Gravy
Prep
25 min
Cook
11 hrs
Total
11 hr 25 min
Serves
8
Difficulty
Medium

The hardest part of stock making is holding a pan below boiling for hours on a hob that wants to boil. An oven set to 100C solves it completely. The all round heat holds the pot exactly where you want it, nothing scorches on the base, and you can go to bed. This is the method to use if you have ever ruined a stock by wandering off.

Ingredients

Makes about 700ml of gravy from around 2 litres of stock

Scale

Kit

  • Roasting tin
  • Heavy lidded casserole or stockpot with a lid
  • Fine sieve
  • Wide pan

Method

  1. In the evening, heat the oven to 220C fan (240C conventional, gas 9). Rub the bones with dripping and roast for 50 minutes, adding the vegetables and tomato purée for the last 20, until everything is deep brown.

  2. Move the lot to a heavy casserole. Deglaze the roasting tin on the hob with a mug of water and pour that in.

  3. Cover with 3.5 litres of cold water. Bring it up to a simmer on the hob first, which takes about 25 minutes, and skim off the foam properly. This is the only chance you will get to skim, so do it thoroughly.

  4. Add the bay, thyme and peppercorns, put the lid on with a small gap and turn the oven down to 100C fan (120C conventional, gas half).

  5. Put the pot in the oven and go to bed. Over 10 to 12 hours the stock sits at around 95C, which is precisely the temperature it wants. The oven surrounds it evenly so nothing catches on the base and it physically cannot come up to a rolling boil.

  6. In the morning, lift the pot out and let it stand for 20 minutes so the sediment settles. Ladle the stock out through a fine sieve rather than pouring the pot.

  7. Chill for a couple of hours until the fat sets and lift it off. You should have around 2.5 litres of stock that sets to a firm jelly.

  8. For the gravy, reduce 1.4 litres to about 900ml over 20 minutes in a wide pan. Make a roux with the butter and flour, cook it 2 minutes to light brown, whisk in the hot stock, simmer 5 minutes, then season and serve.

Tips worth knowing

  • Leave the lid slightly ajar. A fully sealed pot can build up condensation and drip it back, which makes for a weaker, slightly flat stock.
  • Check your oven with a thermometer if you can. Domestic ovens vary by 15C or more at low settings and you want to be near 100C, not 130C.
  • Skim before it goes in, not after. Once it is in the oven for the night you cannot do anything about the scum.
  • This is the least stressful stock method there is. If you have ever come back to a pot that boiled dry, use this from now on.

Change it up

  • Use a mix of beef and pork bones with a trotter for a stock that sets like rubber and gives a very glossy gravy.
  • Add a whole head of garlic and a handful of dried mushrooms to the pot before it goes in for a deeper, more savoury result.
  • Skip the roux and just reduce the stock further for a gluten free jus.

Keeping and reheating

Stock keeps five days chilled and six months frozen. Freeze it in ice cube trays and bags for easy portioning.

Questions people ask

Is it safe to leave stock in the oven overnight?

Yes, and it is generally safer than leaving a hob burner on. A covered pot at 100C in a closed oven has nothing to catch fire and cannot boil dry in ten hours. Use a heavy pot with a well fitting lid and leave it undisturbed.

What temperature should the oven be for stock?

Set it to 100C fan, which is 120C conventional or gas mark half. That holds the liquid at around 90 to 95C, just below simmering, which is exactly where a clear stock wants to be. Any hotter and it will bubble properly and cloud.

Is oven stock better than hob stock?

It is easier and more forgiving, and the clarity is usually better because the temperature is so steady. The one drawback is you cannot skim during the cook, so do it thoroughly before the pot goes in.