a reply to:
Flyingclaydisk
I'm with Lumenari. Am a bit fussy about my gravy and always buy an extra turkey neck from the butcher, and a few extra turkey (or chicken) livers.
Day prior, fill a 6 qt. pot with about 4 qts. of water. Add necks, half of a large onion (no need to peel,will strain later and old wives tale is that
the onion skin helps darken the broth), break a carrot and a stalk of celery in half, add 3-4 peppercorns, smash a clove of garlic, salt, and simmer
till neck meat begins breaking away, then throw in a few livers and simmer another 15 mins. and remove from heat.
Pluck out the necks and livers and set aside. After stock has cooled a bit, I strain through a double layer of cheesecloth, and return stock to pan
and keep simmering to concentrate the flavors.
Clean neck meat, mash up livers, and set aside half for gravy (saving half for stuffing), then wrap neck bones in another double layer of cheesecloth,
along with another stalk of celery, carrot, and onion and throw into stock. Then I simmer another 2 hours to coax the last of the flavor from the
neck bones.
Pluck out the package with bones and veggies in it, fast simmer another half hour to concentrate the flavors. Cool. Refrigerate.
Next day, spoon a couple of tablespoons of pan drippings from roasting pan into pot, bring to boil, then it is ready for either a cornstarch or flour
slurry (made with cold water). Sometimes I'll throw a half cup of water into the roasting pan, simmer and loosen the bits, then pour the resulting
fond into stock pot. Necks I boiled today were pretty fatty, so likely won't need pan drippings tomorrow. After drizzling slurry into simmering
stock, whisk till it thickens, turn down burner, add herbs (a little goes a long way especially if dried herbs are used), add minced liver, and very
finely diced neck meat.
I also use half of the minced liver and neck meat for the stuffing.
My Mom use to make gravy in the roasting pan while bird was 'resting.' I don't, mainly because burners don't heat evenly.
Any leftover gravy not used for warm-ups goes in turkey soup, or turkey meat pies.
Have fun.