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Cream Gravy |
Chicken or pork chop pan drippings
1 tbls white flour 1 tsp cracked black pepper 1 cup milk
After frying chicken or pork chops, take the skilletful of drippings, including all the little leftover crispy bits, and pour off anything more than a couple of tablespoons of oil. I say that because I feel obliged to, but I'll be damned if I pour off anything. (Butter can be added in the unlikely event there is insufficient grease). Keep the heat on the low side of medium and stir in the pepper and flour with a wooden spoon (seriously - the idea of rubbing a steel whisk vigorously against an iron frying pan for ten minutes and then eating the result isn't nice, is it?). Leftover flour with spices from breading the chicken works nicely. It's usually salty enough already. Stir into a loose paste, adding flour if it looks too oily. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. It takes several minutes for the thickening magic of the flour to manifest itself, so cook for at least that long before judging the consistency. Keep it hot enough to bubble, but not burn. Serve over biscuits or mashed potatoes or the whatever-it-is you just fried. |
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It's obvious where this gravy thing came from: some proto fry-cook staring wistfully down into a primordial skilletful of chicken grease and unidentified crispy objects and thinking, "damn shame to let all this lovely fat go to waste." Peasant cuisines the world over are about maximizing calories and minimizing waste. It's all sopping and drippings, stews and casseroles and eating the green parts of vegetables that rich folk only eat the white parts of. The ultimate expression of this economy is hogwash. Pig farmers traditionally saved the water that food had been rinsed in and fed it to the hogs, hoping there would be some nutritive value to the stuff. And indeed there is. I don't know whether to admire them for recognizing the possibility, in the days before calories and vitamins, or laugh at them for superstitiously believing things which touch food magically take on food-like properties. What the heck, let's go with admire. And whole milk. All this talk of pigs has made me hungry. |