Ping! Mad Max

Newbs

Hi Max,[p]I've just gone over your Turkey method on the Naked Whiz site. Looks awesome! Planning of following your plan for Easter Dinner. [p]One question....[p]You mention that you add two sticks of butter and whisk the pan hard to pull up as much of the crud as possible. You also add some white wine later on in the process. I was wondering if you've ever attempted to add the wine before you whisk to lift the drippings and then add the butter. Adding an acidic liquid like wine, vinegar or a fruit juice to a pan full of drippings is called de-glazing the pan. My mother taught me this process many years ago. She is a 5th degree Cordon Bleu Chef. I find that it really assists in lifting most if not all of the pan drippings with less effort than it takes without adding the liquid at this stage. You may already know this as you are clearly very confident in the kitchen, but I thought I'd mention it. If you were aware of this process and there is a reason that you add the wine later on, would you kindly explain why? Thanks very much.[p]Cheers,[p]John

mad max beyond eggdome

Newbs,
hi,[p]nope, haven't tried it in that order. . .i learned my gravy making from a good old virginia lady (my wife's aunt). ..i've certainly deglazed pans with wine before and made reductions that way, but i've never done the butter/flour roux as the second step. ...wonder if deglazing with the wine first, reducing it, then adding the butter and flour to make the roux, would make any difference in taste? ... certainly worth the try though. .. .[p]thanks[p]max

fishlessman

mad max beyond eggdome,
i think it would work, but you would have to simmer it longer to get the raw flour flavor to dissipate.ive always made the roux first, and when it needed more flour for thickening the simmer time went way up. have you tried the gravey using the turkey fat instead of the butter. thats the way ive been doing it, and then add a pat of butter to the gravey when serving it.

mad max beyond eggdome

fishlessman,
gotcha.... nope, haven't tried using the turkey fat. ..don't know why, cause as you can see, i just ladle the stuff off and pitch it. ..and if you read my exchange with superglide about his passover turkey, i even suggested using chicken fat. . .so why not the turkey fat? . ..i'll have to try that as well. ..thanks. . .

Newbs

Hi Max,[p]You could do the roux in a small pan separate from the drippings and then add it to the drippings pan after you had cooked it a bit to get to that nutty aroma stage. That takes care of the raw flour taste that could result by adding flour to too much liquid. As you know, the deglazing requires very little liquid so it probably wouldn't be a problem to do the roux straight in the drippings pan after the deglaze anyway.[p]
I certainly wouldn't want to mess with your wife's aunt's method....just thought the deglazing might save your whisking arm a bit...ha![p]Cheers,[p]John