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I have made delicious gravy all my life and my mother and grandmother before me and my daughters and granddaughters too! We don't sweat the small stuff. We use a few drops of Kitchen Bouquet to darken it. I always make a cream gravy rather than the gravy from stock or broth. We add the giblets to the gravy and the neck meat to the dressing.

"THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE RECIPE: Immediately put half the gravy into a storage container, let it cool down, then hide it in the refrigerator so that you'll have enough for pot pie or hot turkey sandwiches on Saturday."

betteirene- love that piece of advice. *L*

The key to terrific turkey gravy is drippings, drippings and more drippings! It is essential that you use drippings from the turkey for the best taste.

Canned gravy is NOT the way to go; if you can cook a turkey then homemade gravy shouldn't be too hard.

betterirene: A thousand thank you's. This is exactly what I was looking for.

A nice rich, flavorful roasted turkey broth makes the best gravy base. It also goes into the stuffing, so you get matching flavors. It looks like a long recipe, but it's really very simple. And it is so worth it. You'll get that umami thing going; your gravy goes from "dud" to "Dude!"

Before you brine the turkey, remove the Pope's nose, the neck and the giblets. Rinse them well in cold running tap water.

Melt half a stick of butter in an ovenable stock pot or Dutch oven and remove from heat. Toss in the turkey parts; sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. Kosher salt and 1/2 tsp. coarse-ground black pepper.

Cut the root end off of a large yellow onion. Do not peel it. (When shopping, try to pick one with a couple of thick layers of dark coppery peel--you want color.) Cut the onion into fourths and place on top of the turkey parts. (Alternatively, if you need onions for anything else on your menu, just use those peels for the stock.)

Trim the stem ends of three well-scrubbed carrots. Cut them into 2" chunks and toss them in the pot.

Rinse very well six whole ribs of celery. Cut three inches from the top and bottom of each rib and throw the trimmings (including the leaves) into the stock pot. Save the center sections for your stuffing or for appetizers.

Place the stock pot in the oven at 400 degrees, or whatever temp your pies, rolls or sweet potatoes are baking at. You can adjust the temperature up or down for the stock if your oven is doing double duty. Roast, stirring every now and again, until the contents of the stock pot are nice and caramelized to a dark golden color.

Put the stock pot on the stove top and add 3 to 4 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down so that the stock simmers. After a half hour, taste it and add salt, pepper or water if necessary. I use a gallon (4 quarts) of water and a couple of Knorr chicken bouillion cubes. Continue to simmer until needed.

I don't strain or cool it. I just ladle about half of it straight from the pot into the stuffing to moisten it. I let the remainder simmer on the stovetop until I'm ready to make the gravy. If I can't afford to give up a burner, I cover the pot and put it on the back porch (Lord knows I can't afford to spare the refrigerator space on this day.)

While your turkey is resting on the carving board (in my case it's a rimmed cookie sheet), put the roasting pan on the stove top. If you don't have a good roasting pan, scrape the entire contents into a 3-quart saucepan, making sure to scrape any bits off the bottom and sides of the roasting pan.

Make a slurry of 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup cornstarch in a two-cup measure; stir in a ladle or two of stock and set aside.

Cook the drippings over medium-high heat until all the moisture has popped off and evaporated. You should be left with a lot of golden fond swimming in turkey fat. Turn the heat to low and sprinkle in enough flour, a couple tablespoons at a time, to absorb all the fat. Add enough flour to make it stirrable, but not so much that it forms a ball. Let the turkey roux cook for a minute, then add all the stock a ladle full at a time, along with half the cornstarch slurry. Call my sister Denise into the kitchen and make her stir the gravy constantly. It's her job to stir the gravy while I mash the potatoes. Bring the gravy to a boil--if it's too thin for your liking, add the remainder of the cornstarch slurry, and if it's too thick, add some water. Cook for a minute or two more, then taste it and adjust the seasoning. It should be richly-flavored, not salty, and beautifully colored, not pasty beige. (The cornstarch helps to not dilute the color.) By the time the gravy is done, everything else has been put out on the table and the turkey is ready to carve.

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE RECIPE: Immediately put half the gravy into a storage container, let it cool down, then hide it in the refrigerator so that you'll have enough for pot pie or hot turkey sandwiches on Saturday.

Pumpkin and chocolate work better than pumpkin and peanut butter. Add some apple and you have three great Fall flavors that all compliment each other.

I think peanut butter or butterscotch chips would be great.

@dbcurrie - one word, "YUM!"

this sound like my ons favorite flavors all in one cake. Thanks fo rht suggestion, I think I will try it.

I say, anything with pumpkin is good. And anything with peanut butter is good. Ergo, combine the two and I think that would make for one killer dessert! Definitely some type of fluffy peanut butter filling, made with a bit of cream cheese and whipped cream, nothing too heavy. I like the idea of the white chocolate-maple ganache, but again, I would keep it more light then heavy (I'm thinking a traditional ganache would just be too much--maybe make it more of a thin glaze?). Sounds great though! I'd love a recipe post once you figure it out :)

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