How to make delicious homemade gravy for Thanksgiving dinner
The gravy boat may not appear very often on the average dining room table, but you can bet your bottom dollar it will be there at least once a year when your family and friends gather for a Thanksgiving dinner.
For many, turkey and all the trimmings, or fixings depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line you're from, is an incomplete dish without a liberal dousing of silky gravy to moisten things up. Gravy may have become a convenience food with the advent of stock cubes, but there's still nothing like a steaming drizzle of authentic homemade gravy made with meat juices to crown your delicious Thanksgiving feast.
Watch the video to learn how to make homemade gravy for Thanksgiving dinner.
Who invented gravy?
The term "gravy" almost certainly derives from the French word grave, found in many medieval French cookbooks. It referred to the natural cooking juices that flowed from roasting meat. The addition of gravy to a Thanksgiving meal probably stems from the very first Thanksgiving in 1621. According to the Smithsonian, the initial Thanksgiving was a three-day celebration in which the leftovers from one day's roast were put in a pot and boiled to make a broth that was then thickened with grain for the following day's meal. Nowadays, that broth accompanies the main meal as gravy.
Can you make gravy without meat juices?
The idea of a sauce made from meat drippings will likely sound pretty gross for vegans and vegetarians. But there are many ways to moisten your Thanksgiving meal with gravy without introducing any animal products to the plate. One popular recipe involves mixing flour with coconut milk, vegetable stock, soy sauce, salt and pepper. The mixture can then be reduced over a flame until it has the desired consistency. Another alternative, if you're vegetarian, not vegan, is to use natural yogurt seasoned with herbs and spices. Where there's a will, there's a way.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How to make gravy for Thanksgiving dinner
