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At Thanksgiving I couldn’t help but ask my mother and grandmother some of their secrets to fantastic turkey gravy and chicken stock (Jewish Penicillin!).  With Hanukkah and Christmast fast approaching, I thought you might be able to benefit from their tricks for the preparations of your holiday meals.

Mom’s gravy is never lumpy.  Never gloppy.  Always fabulous.  Here is how she described making it:

She roasts her turkey in the oven and adds carrots, onions and celery to her roasting pan.  When the turkey is finished cooking, she removes the onion and celery, but mashes the roasted carrots into the pan drippings.  In a jar, she makes a slurry by combining flour and water, and shaking it until it is well combined.  She pours the pan drippings, carrot, white wine and her slurry into a pan and cooks until done.  Delish…

Mom also has a fantastic tip for making her chicken stock as low maintenance as possible.  She brings her ingredients to a boil (chicken covered with water, carrots, celery and onion with the skin still on) on the stove.  Then…here is the surprise…she puts the whole pot, with the lid ajar, into a 350 degree oven and cooks it for 5 or more hours.

My 89 year old grandmother says that she stabs 4-6 cloves into the whole onion that she adds to her cooking chicken stock.

What are some of your secrets?