Simple Gravy

I collected about 750 ml / 3 cups of pan drippings from the bird the other day, and of course made gravy with it. It's very easy to do, and with drippings from a brined bird you don't have to add any other spices - it is simply fantastic as-is. I just dump off the drippings, and be sure to scrape out all the gunk as well and use it, since it adds a lot of flavour.

One thing about pan drippings from a brined bird is that they can be extremely salty! The first thing you need to do is taste the drippings and dilute with water if they are too salty. Dump the drippings into a largish saucepan (3 quart / litre) and give them a good buzz with a hand blender until they are uniform with no chunks. Then taste, and dilute with a little water at a time, buzzing with the hand blender between additions. Note that you can happily leave it a bit saltier than you normally would tolerate, because when you put it onto your plate it will get diluted again by the things you are eating it with.

Once you've got it diluted to your taste, add 5 or 6 tablespoons of corn starch per quart / litre of liquid. Buzz thoroughly again with the hand blender. Turn on the heat and raise slowly to boiling. Allow to boil gently for a minute or two, then turn off the heat.

What you don't eat you can happily can in mason jars if you have a pressure canner. I process the jars for 30 to 40 minutes at 15 psi.