What makes gravy dark brown

You can serve it with your favorite mashed potatoes or meats. Do you have any idea how to darken the color of your gravy? Good thing there are simple ways that can help you ease the process and achieve a darker color.

If you have a Kitchen Bouquet or any other dark coloring gravy enhancers, you may also try it. Take note that among all the color enhancers mentioned above, the Kitchen Bouquet works the best. Follow the easy steps in preparing the Kitchen Bouquet copycat.

It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. When I make gravy to go with roast chicken and turkey, it is flavourful but always looks a little pale. Could you suggest a way to make it look darker without adding gravy browning? As Eric Hu notes, a dark roux is the way to go. It's interesting that he mentions Alton Brown, as it's his turkey gravy recipe I use.

His recipe also uses red wine, which further darkens the gravy, richens it, and adds a fantastic flavor. I'd only change one thing: next time I'm going to make the roux and finish the gravy in a separate pan after deglazing.

The roasting pan is too big and unwieldy. As noted in Eric's answer, a roux is just flour cooked in fat until it turns the color you want. I usually end up a little darker than here before adding the liquids back to the pan:. Add a roux, ideally a dark roux, to your gravy. This is a standard French and Cajun which is French-rooted technique for giving color and body to sauces. Roux's are essentially butter or oil and flour, heated gently and stirred occasionally to cook the flour so that it darkens in color, but doesn't burn.

The darker the roux, the less thickening properties it'll have. It sounds like you want something more like a brick-red color roux. Some recipes make this out to be a pain, but Alton Brown has a technique that involves using an oven for gentle heating. This is nice since it requires about 10 minutes of your attention and 1 hour and 30 minutes of baking time. Classic technique is to use an 'oignon brule' - cut an onion in half and caramelize on a griddle or in a heavy pan.

This is similar to what Bruce's third suggestion. In addition to the suggestions of using a dark roux--and remember, the darker the roux, the more dark roux flavor, and the more color, but the less thickening you get from the roux--you might want to make your own dark turkey stock.

I like to roast my turkey cut up, so it is no problem to make the stock from the back, neck, giblets except the liver , the wing tips, and so forth the day before. However, you can always buy a few turkey wings or backs from your poultry grocer--they make wonderful stock. Roast your turkey parts at on a sheet pan line it with aluminum foil for easy cleanup until they are nicely dark brown.

It doesn't matter if the parts are cooked through, what you are doing is developing color and flavor. Then, proceed to make your stock as normal. The answer here is… Yes, and no. You can make a brown gravy with just some form of fat and a good quality beef stock. Cook up some beef. Read: fat. Pour all the drippings and fat into a measuring cup or bowl. Be sure to scrape as many browned bits left in the pan as possible with the mix. This was more than enough to get some massive flavor out of the gravy.

Measure out 4 Tablespoons of beef fat. Pour that into a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until it shimmers. Add four Tablespoons of flour and stir.

The flour will soak up the oil quickly and turn into a paste. This is a good thing. Now comes the good part. Grab a whisk and start stirring. Then pour in the rest and stir to combine. Add the wine, boil for minutes, add a little salt and allow to cool.

When completely cold, bottle for future use. Only a little is needed to add colour to soups, stews, gravies etc. I'm greedy; I want both. I agree that I want my beef gravy to be brown. It's so easy to have the flavor AND the nice rich look; why not? A white sauce is not supposed to look that way so that's fine, but a good clear, rich, dark beef gravy is a delight to my way of thinking. I prefer beef gravy to be made with cornstarch so it is clear.

Chicken gravy I like either way: with broth and cornstarch or with milk and flour. Ann - Given your obvious talent and pride in the visual presentation of food, I have to say I'm a little more than suprised at your response. I believe that we eat first with our eyes and then with out tastebuds. My burned sugar coloring has turned more than a few foods from "ho hum" to "yum". We use food coloring to make things look more cherry or more minty, and I use burned surga to make a light rye bread look like it has loads of molasses in it even when it doesn't.

And I don't use cornstarch in my gravy, I reserve that for clear sauces. Cornstarch can "un-thicken" when the gravy is re heated or overcooked the first time.

You are right Foodonastump, I do enjoy putting together a nice plate and taking food photos, but if the truth be told, those that really know me, know that I care much more about flavour than presentation. I've always said, you can feed me on chipped plates or paper plates as long as the food tastes good. There is room here for everyone's preference. So for those that do like to enhance the colour of their gravy, here is a link to Darken Gravy Tricks.

Like Linda, I do not use cornstarch to make gravy. I like the appearance, flavour and the texture of gravy made with flour. And another personal preference is that I don't like a really thick gravy.

I prefer beef gravy to be dark brown. A medium brown turkey gravy is fine with me. I guess that's what I am accustomed to having. I add about a tsp of Kitchen Bouquet to the gravy to make it darker. I've used dark soy sauce with good results, but more often than not I have enough brown bit in the pan to color the gravy. DW swears by Kitchen Bouquet and I have to admit that her gravy is pretty good too. Joe: Don't like to get into this anymore. Have better things to do. But I saw my Piasano in there.

So I dropped in. I really don't know what Deborah meant by making the Gravy Dark????? Maybe by Dark she means a Meduim to Darker Brown. But I don't think your answer was meant to belittle. I like a combination of all, Color,Aroma and Taste. I don't have a nice way with words; like other members, To put my point across and not be the Villian. Some day I'll learn. But not here. I may even learn to spell " Color or Flavor " Hey!

Remember Abe Lincoln's Quote "You can fool some,etc. Don't know if everyone saw this. I put it in another Post. Being this was mentioned here, thought I'd put it in, In case someone missed it. Cindy: I thought there was something wrong with me and I was the only one who used Corn Starch to thicken.

But I knew I learned this somewhere way back when, so there had to be someone else doing it. I also use flour, when I remove the Roast but I brown it first before adding any Liquids.