So any tips on gravy? I made mushroom gravy the other night, but gravy is my nemesis. I swear! It tasted good, but it was definitely ugly and lumpy (tiny ones, anyway). I wasn't sure it'd even work there for awhile. I think the proportions in this recipe are not right.
Okay, so I doubled that. (I made this in honor of Bilbo and Frodo's birthday for our small group, so that's about 20 people.) 2 quarts broth to 2/3 cup flour. The thing is that proportion did not thicken at all. I pulled some of the liquid off, added another 1/3 cup flour, and tried again. Thicker but still basically soup. So I pulled off the liquid again, added another 1/3 cup flour, and that worked, though it was a bit thicker than I would've liked. And it was ugly.
Quote: Ingredients
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup flour
1 quart cold beef, chicken or vegetable stock or broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Preparation
Melt the butter in a large saucepan, over medium-high heat. When the butter starts to sizzle, add the mushrooms and cook, stirring for 10 minutes, or until the mushroom juices have evaporated, and they've begun to brown. Stir in the flour, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for another 5 minutes.
Whisk in 1 cup of the cold broth. Once incorporated, pour in the rest of the broth, and add the thyme. Bring back to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Note: For thicker gravy, turn heat up to medium, and reduce to desired thickness. For thinner gravy, simply add more broth.
So ideas on where I went wrong? (I mean, you know the butter plus the liquid that the mushrooms release add to the overall liquid content of the gravy. Does that account for it? Did I just have bad luck? Or what?)