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Pot Roast Gravy
Skim fat from pot liquor and strain 2 cups of pot liquor for the gravy. 4 TABLESPOONS FLOUR 4 TABLESPOONS POT FAT 2 CUPS POT LIQUOR I CAN MEAT SOUP Cook flour in fat until frothy and slightly browned. Then add 2 cups pot liquor, with water added if necessary and cook until thickened. Add canned soup and cook 3-4 minutes. Put roast back in the gravy and continue cooking 1 hour, on top of the bones, so it does not stick to the bottom. Keep tightly covered. If marrow bones are used, your gravy is all the richer and you can spread the marrow on your bread in place of butter.
A working gravy built straight in the pot the roast came out of, then used as a braising bath to finish the meat. The one thing to get right is the bone rack: the roast sits on the bones so the underside never touches hot iron.
- Pot liquorThe braising liquid left after the roast comes out. Skim the fat, strain it, and reserve four tablespoons of the skimmed fat for the roux. If you are short of two cups, top up with water rather than more stock, since the canned soup adds plenty of salt.
- "1 can meat soup"Probably a condensed beef soup or consomme; the recipe gives no size, though the standard condensed can of the period ran about 10.5 ounces. Used undiluted it adds salt and body. Taste before adding any further salt, and if you are using a modern low-sodium broth in its place you will need to season at the end.
- The rouxFour tablespoons of flour to four of fat is a standard gravy proportion for two cups of liquid; the canned soup goes in afterwards and will loosen it again. Cook the roux until it froths and takes light color, as the recipe directs, or the gravy tastes of raw flour.
- Adding the liquidAdd the pot liquor gradually, stirring or whisking, to keep the gravy smooth.
- The bone rackLaying the roast on the marrow bones keeps it off the bottom of a Dutch oven or heavy pot, which over an hour of covered cooking is the difference between a gravy and scorched flour. A metal trivet or a bed of thick-cut onion does the same job if you have no bones.
- The final hourThis is a covered braise at a bare simmer, not a boil. Over a campfire, keep the pot to one side of the coals; on a range, the lowest setting that still shows movement. Check once at the halfway mark and add a little water if the gravy has tightened past pouring consistency.
- MarrowBones want to be two to three inches of cut shank or femur. After an hour of cooking the marrow slides out easily and spreads while hot; it firms and turns waxy as it cools, so serve it straight from the pot.
- YieldRoughly two and a half to three cups of finished gravy, depending on the size of the can and how much reduces during the final hour.
Pot roast gravy of this kind belongs to the tradition of one-pot cooking, where the vessel that browned and braised the meat also produced the sauce. The technique itself, a browned flour-and-fat roux slackened with the cooking liquor, is old European kitchen practice carried into American home and camp cooking; what dates this version is the can of condensed meat soup, a twentieth-century convenience product used here for concentrated salt and body. The instruction to return the roast to the finished gravy for another hour suits the cuts involved: chuck, round and other hard-worked muscle need extended moist heat, and the second hour in liquid does as much for tenderness as it does for flavor.