Make Ahead Thanksgiving Turkey Gravy Tutorial

I am feeding 20 people this year for Thanksgiving so it is imperative that I get as much done ahead of time as possible.  This is how I always make my gravy:  You can buy turkey parts like legs, wings and necks but they have become so expensive here that this year I bought a whole turkey.  It was 89 cents a pound and a much better deal than buying individual parts.  I did buy a package of smoked necks to add extra flavor. The smokiness adds depth to the gravy and the secret to a good gravy is depth of flavor.  You can serve lackluster turkey, stuffing and potatoes but pour a good gravy over it, and people will think it's wonderful.  If you can't eat a small bowl of your gravy as if it's a wonderfully rich soup, you aren't doing it right.  And BTW....don't make thick gloppy gravy....YUCK!  Place your turkey in a big heavy pot and add a large onion cut in half, 6 carrots, a bunch of celery, fresh rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns.  Don't bother to peel the onions, just cut them in half.  The carrots and celery can go in whole too.  At this point you are just making stock.  I throw in onion and garlic ends which I've collected and kept in the freezer. The herbs can go in whole on the stems.  Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil.  Turn it to a simmer and cook for hours until the turkey is actually falling apart when you turn it over.  The carcass should be falling apart and the meat falling off the bones.  Your house will smell like Thanksgiving!

Here it is after 7 hours of simmering.  Strain this through a fine sieve and discard all solids.

 Pour the stock into a container and refrigerate it for 24 hours.  You can see the fat coagulating on the top. Skim the fat off the top and put it in a heavy pot. Using the fat will add lots of flavor to the finished gravy.

 Add a stick of butter to the fat in the pot and melt it.  Add 1-1/2 C. of flour and whisk constantly over medium heat.  You are creating a roux.  Don't let this burn. The darker you cook the roux, the darker your gravy will be. I couldn't take a pic because I had to keep whisking but my roux was the same color as my finished gravy.

 Now it's time to start to add the stock.  It is gelatinous so add it a couple cups at a time.

 Let it thicken and then add some more.

 To get the depth of flavor you want in your gravy, you need to add something with umami flavor.  Umami rich ingredients are what separate regular food from spectacular food.  Think soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, Asian fish sauce, dried mushrooms.  You need to add some of these to the gravy.  I add a couple teaspoons of fish sauce to my gravy.  You never know it's there but the flavor boost it adds is incredible. The other trick is tomato paste.  I added about 1/2 cup of it to this recipe.  Again, you won't taste it but it enriches the overall flavor tremendously. I also added a tub of demi glace.  Layer-layer-layer the flavors.  You won't need to add anything else like salt and pepper or herbs because it was all added to the original stock so the flavors are already there.

 Except for fresh parsley.  Once the gravy is done, stir in a bunch of chopped parsley.  This will infuse the gravy with a wonderful fresh flavor.  Now put it back in a container and refrigerate for 24 hours.  But only after you were able to eat a small bowl of it.  At this point my daughter and husband were eating theirs and making all kinds of yummy food noises.

 The next day, the gravy will have set up again.

 Scoop in into jumbo zip lock bags.

 Level them out and place them on a cookies sheet.  Slide them into your freezer.  They freeze easily because they are thin and they defrost easily too.  Defrost the day before your dinner.  I put my gravy in a slow cooker on the buffet table.  Plus, making this much gravy guarantees that all of my guests will get a tub of it to go home with their leftovers. This made 8 quarts of gravy.