Thanksgiving Turkey Giblet Gravy

Almost every American turkey comes with a bag of giblets tucked inside it, and this is what they are for. You simmer them into a strong stock while the bird roasts, then use that stock to make the gravy in the roasting tin at the last minute. The chopped giblets go back in, which some people love and some people quietly pick out. Either way the stock is what makes it taste like a proper holiday gravy.

Ingredients

Makes about 1.2 litres, enough for ten generous servings

• 1 set turkey giblets neck, heart, gizzard and liver, ask the butcher if your bird did not come with them
• 1 onion halved, skin left on for colour
• 1 carrot roughly chopped
• 1 stick celery roughly chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 black peppercorns
• 1.5 litres (2⅔ pints) cold water
• 60g (2¼oz) fat from the turkey roasting tin topped up with butter if there is not enough
• 60g (2¼oz) plain flour
• 1 hard boiled egg optional, finely chopped, very traditional in the American South
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Medium saucepan
• Sieve
• Roasting tin
• Balloon whisk
• Fat separator or jug

Method

1. Set the liver aside for now, because it turns bitter with long cooking. Put the neck, heart and gizzard into a saucepan with the onion, carrot, celery, bay and peppercorns, and cover with the cold water.

2. Bring it slowly to the boil, skim off the grey foam that rises, then drop it to the barest simmer. Leave it uncovered for an hour and a half. It should never boil hard, or the stock goes cloudy and the meat toughens.

3. Drop the liver in for the last fifteen minutes only. Then lift out all the giblets, strain the stock into a jug and discard the vegetables. You want about a litre. Pick the meat off the neck and chop the heart, gizzard and liver small.

4. When the turkey is out and resting, tip the contents of the roasting tin into a jug or fat separator. Let it stand for five minutes so the clear fat rises, then spoon 60g of that fat back into the tin and keep the dark juices underneath.

5. Set the tin over two hob rings on a medium heat. Scatter in the flour and whisk it into the fat, scraping the sticky brown patches off the base of the tin. Cook for three minutes until it turns the colour of a digestive biscuit.

6. Pour in the hot giblet stock a ladle at a time, whisking each addition smooth before the next. Then add the reserved dark roasting juices. Bring it to a simmer and cook for eight to ten minutes, whisking, until it coats a spoon.

7. Stir in the chopped giblets and the hard boiled egg if you are using it. Taste and season. Pour into a warm jug through a sieve if you want it smooth, or straight in if you want the bits.

8. If it is thicker than you like, loosen with a little more stock. If it is thin, keep it simmering for another five minutes with the tin tilted so it reduces.

Tips worth knowing

• Start the giblet stock the moment the turkey goes in the oven, or even the day before. It is the one part of this that cannot be rushed and it is the whole reason the gravy tastes good.
• Never let the liver simmer for the full time. Fifteen minutes at the end is plenty, and any longer makes the stock taste metallic.
• If the roasting tin juices are very dark and salty from a brined bird, taste before you add any salt at all. It is very easy to ruin a two hour gravy in the last thirty seconds.
• A wide roasting tin over two hob rings gives you uneven heat. Move the tin around and whisk into the corners so you do not end up with a scorched patch at one end.

Keeping and reheating

The giblet stock keeps three days in the fridge or three months frozen, so make it well ahead. Finished gravy keeps three days covered in the fridge and freezes for two months, though the chopped egg goes rubbery, so add that only when reheating.

Questions people ask