gravy, the beverage of the gods....

yes, i said beverage and i meant it. good gravy is so easy and yet so hard to find it's a treat when you get it. once you've got the knack, you'll never stand for canned gravy again. i use flour and make a roux with butter or grease from whatever meat i'm cooking. okay, yes, keep your pants on, i use grease. about a tablespoon to cook the flour in, and that's it. for a decent amount of gravy, to feed five or six people (normal people, not my family) use equal parts fat to flour, roughly a table spoon of each. cook some onions over medium heat until they're brown in the fat, then add the flour and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook that until it's brown, stirring frequently. add about two cups of broth, slowly, whisking as you go. the goal is to get all the tasty brown bits from the bottom of the pan and beat the lumps of roux to death so you get a nice smooth result. bring it to a simmer and let it cook down stirring often to be sure that the lumps don't come back. it won't look very thick right now, don't panic. it will need to simmer for probably 30 minutes, just keep whisking and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan. as it cools it will thicken a bit more and unfortunately develop a skin on the top if you don't cover it, so either put it in a warmed gravy boat and cover with plastic wrap or leave it in the pot till the last minute.