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Giblet Gravy
Giblets and neck of fowl
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons chicken fat
Salt and pepper
Place the giblets (liver, heart and gizzard) and the neck in a saucepan, and cover them with cold water. Simmer slowly and when tender remove meat from the neck, and chop fine with the giblets, saving the water in which they were cooked. Heat the fat on top of the stove and when it is hot, stir in the flour. Cook two minutes, then add one cup of the stock left from cooking the giblets, pouring it in gradually so as not to thin the gravy too much. If the gravy seems too thick, add a little hot water. Lastly, put in the chopped giblets, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
A straightforward roux gravy built on giblet stock, and the only real variable is how long the gizzard takes to soften. A few notes on quantities and timing.
- Simmering timeLiver, heart, gizzard and neck are treated as one batch here, but they cook at different rates. The gizzard needs 45 minutes to an hour of gentle simmering; the liver is done in 10 to 15 and turns grainy and bitter if left longer, so add it near the end or poach it separately.
- Chicken fatThe recipe calls for two tablespoons of chicken fat without saying where it comes from. Fat skimmed from a roasting pan, fat risen to the top of the chilled giblet stock, or butter will all serve; skip drippings that are heavily browned or the gravy will taste scorched.
- Cook the flour properlyTwo minutes over moderate heat is the minimum to lose the raw-flour taste. Keep it pale if you want a light gravy; take it to the colour of a walnut shell for a deeper one, and stir throughout.
- Adding the stockGradual addition is the hinge of the recipe. Pour in a few tablespoons, whisk to a smooth paste, then let the rest go in as a stream. All at once into a hot roux and you get lumps that no amount of beating will fully clear.
- Consistency and yieldTwo tablespoons each of fat and flour to one cup of liquid gives a medium gravy, about a cup and a quarter, enough for four servings alongside a roast bird. Thin with hot water or more stock; it will thicken again as it stands.
- Season at the endThe recipe adds the salt and pepper last, after the giblets are in and the gravy is at final thickness.
- Getting aheadCook and chop the giblets while the bird roasts, or the day before, and keep the stock refrigerated. The gravy itself takes five minutes once the pan is free.
Giblets — the neck, heart, gizzard and liver tucked inside a dressed bird — were a matter of thrift as much as flavour in the early twentieth century, when poultry was bought whole and nothing edible was thrown out. A book like Butterick's, published for readers who did their own cooking and their own accounting, treats the giblet as a free cup of stock and some chopped meat. The habit survives most visibly in American Thanksgiving cooking, where the giblet gravy served with the turkey is made in essentially the way described here.