"D.Currie" > wrote in message
...
> Have you ever watched a self-professed not-good cook making something?
>
> The other day, I got to witness the making of "gravy."
>
> It started with an empty Teflon-coated frying pan, on high heat. Just
about
> the time I was wondering about toxic fumes, she dumped flour into the pan.
> The flour started browning, but quickly progressed to burning, even with
> stirring. It began to smell like burnt popcorn. This stirring continued
> until the flour was a nice mix of very dark brown and black.
>
> Juice from the evening's roast was poured into a container, and an equal
> amount of water was added. This was just the juice that has oozed from the
> roast, none of the browned bits from the pan were used, and I didn't see
any
> fat, either. A bit of the water-juice was dumped into the pan, and the pan
> quickly covered, then uncovered as the sizzling stopped, and the rest of
the
> juice-water dumped in. Stirring didn't do much to alleviate the lumps, but
> it did thicken.
>
> At about this point the cook said something about wanting more gravy than
> this, and dumped another scoop of flour into the mix, and added yet again
as
> much water as there was original liquid. So now it's 3/4 water
>
> More mixing. A quick shake of some sort of off-brand mystery spice mix.
>
> And that was about it. When it came to the table, I didn't notice the
lumps,
> so maybe they were strained out.
>
> What was amazing was that the color and thickness were just perfect for
what
> you'd expect in a meat gravy, while flavor was almost entirely absent.
After
> watching the preparation, I had expected it to taste burnt, ashy,
> floury...something. But it had almost no flavor at all.
>
> All this was done, not in a "I don't know what I'm doing" improvising
mode,
> but with a very practiced hand, as though it had been done this way many
> times. I'm sure it had. This explains a lot.
>
> Don't try this recipe at home, please.
>
> Donna
>
>

Bet the burned flour just smelled terrific!