Make Ahead Turkey Gravy Recipe - Butter Your Biscuit (2024)

FAQs

Why do you put butter in gravy? ›

Fats add tremendous flavor.

Butter, chicken fat, turkey, beef, pork, bacon, duck, goose…if it has fat, it'll add flavor. And that, Riene, will get you back on the gravy train. Now, go roast a chicken, save the drippings, and make some gravy! (We've heard biscuits to sop up all that gravy add a little extra flair too.)

But traditionally it's made at the last minute, after the turkey has been removed from the roasting pan. Here's a secret: There's no need to make gravy right before serving. You can make it up to five days ahead. Then, as you reheat it, whisk in the turkey pan drippings for extra flavor.

It's easy: Simply cook it a day or two in advance, let it cool completely, then carve the bird into large pieces—breasts, wings, thighs and drumsticks. Store in a container in the refrigerator until the big day. This method actually result in juicier meat—and an infinitely more relaxed host.

I recommend real butter here if you don't have any dietary exceptions that prevent that. You could also use turkey fat here, but I prefer the flavor of the butter. If you're making any sort of bacon-wrapped meat, bacon grease works beautifully as a gravy starter as well.

If your gravy is on the skimpy side, you can thicken it quickly with flour or cornstarch. But don't add your thickener directly to the gravy, which will create lumps. Instead, try stirring in three or four tablespoons of flour or cornstarch into a small amount of cold water until you have a smooth paste.

Browning adds more flavor to the gravy and gets rid of the raw flour taste. You're basically making a roux. We find that a flour-based gravy holds up better and reheats better later, which is why we tend to prefer using flour over cornstarch to make gravy unless we have a guest who is eating gluten-free.

You can use either stock or broth for keeping dressing moist or as a basis for gravy, but a strong flavor will give you better results.

The Best Method for Reheating Gravy: A Skillet

Here are the three steps you need to know to reheat gravy. Spoon it into the skillet: Spooning breaks up gelled gravy into easy-to-reheat portions. Heat on low: Don't heat the pan and add the gravy. Start the cool gravy in a cool pan to reheat slowly.

Gravy. “In terms of gravy, I am a firm believer in there is no such thing as too much gravy,” writes Virginia Willis. However, experts say that ⅓ to ½ cup of gravy per guest is a good place to start. Our favorite Make-Ahead Gravy makes one quart of gravy, which would serve eight to twelve guests.

Can you add turkey drippings to pre-made gravy? ›

Incorporate Drippings From the Roasting Pan

With a little help from store-bought gravy, you can ensure you have enough to coat everyone's turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans. While heating your store-bought gravy on the stove, add drippings from the bottom of the roasting pan to make it more flavorful.

Yes! You can season, stuffed and butter up the turkey the night before and place it onto a roasting pan, then into the refrigerator. Can I make the garlic butter ahead of time? Yes, I recommend making the garlic butter ahead of time to save time the day of, especially if you have lots of other dishes to prepare.

Reheat Your Turkey the Next Day

You can bake it along with the stuffing (drizzle a little turkey broth over the stuffing before you bake it to add some turkey flavor) and side dishes, but watch the bird carefully, as you don't want to overcook it or dry out the meat by leaving it in the oven too long.

Butter does not provide any thickening to a sauce, since it is made of just fat and water. But a chunk of butter, salted or unsalted, swirled into a sauce at the end, can temporarily emulsify a sauce, while adding richness and sheen, all of which are good things.

If a recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of salt and you use salted butter you could end up adding quite a bit more via the butter — sometimes as much as doubling the amount called for. So unsalted butter is always a better pick when you are cooking so that you can add as much as salt as you want (or don't) in your recipe.

Similar to creamy sauces like Alfredo, or meaty sauces like ragu, tomato sauce is naturally low in fat, and as a result, sometimes becomes too thick and too starchy when it's been tossed with pasta. The addition of butter helps to loosen and emulsify the sauce, making it smooth and creamy.

Butter has no equal for thickening sauces, without forgetting the taste and all the flavours; it reinforces the creamy, melt in the mouth character of some receipes. Butter softens basic flavours such as sweet, salty, bitter and acid.