First of all, thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions for
making turley gravy.

The turkey gravy was good, but not great. I'd give it a B or B+. My
main complaint was that it had a slightly bitter or harsh taste.

I'd like to describe what I did and see if anyone can suggest how I
could do better.

When the turkey went into the oven, I started the stock. I heated some
olive oil in a skillet ove medium high heat and browned the neck,
giblets, and wing tips for about 5-6 minutes. I added an onion and
some carrots chopped coarsely and cooked for several minutes.

At this point, I may have made my first mistake. My wife had just
finished peeling the potatoes and there were a pile of potato peelings
in the sink. I grabbed a handful and dumped them into the skillet with
the other veggies. I probably added a cup or so.

I added a half cup of chianti and enough water to cover everything and
brought it to a simmer. I left it to simmer partly covered for 2
hours.

I then added 3 bay leaves, 6-8 whole peppercorns, 5-6 whole allspice
berries, and some basil. I left this to simmer for another hour.

I strained the liquid into a pyrex yielding about 2 cups. I didn't
taste it at this point. I probably should have. I let it sit. A little
fat came to the top -- about 1/2 cup, which I spooned off.

About this time, the turkey came out of the over. We set it on a
cutting board. I poured the drippings into a pyrex bowl. I got a
little less than a cup of liquid. This always happens. Very little
liquid. My wife started with a cup or two of water in the bottom of
the pan. The bird is on a rack and covered with foil. It always comes
out tasting great, but not much liquid.

Now comes what may have been mistake #2. The potatoes had just
finished cooking and we had a boel of potato water. I added that to
the 2 cups of stock making the 4 cups that I would need. I poured all
of this into the roasting pan and put it over 2 burners on medium to
deglaze.

In the meantime, I heated 5-6 Tbsp of fat in the skillet and started
whiking in the 5-6 Tbsp of flour previously measured out. This quickly
became a very dry paste, so I kept adding more fat until I ran out
than added butter. I probably added 10-12 Tbsp of fat altogether. I
heated this until the flour turned brown.

Meanwhile, I was stirring and scraping the roasting pan until all of
the bits were loosened.

I then strained the liquid from the roasting pan into the skillet with
the flour and fat. This quickly became a smooth gravy that was a
little too thin.

It was at this point that I tasted it. It had a very strong bite to
it. I first added a little salt (1-2 tsp at a time). This helped until
I was worried that it was getting too salty.

I ended up adding some milk and even cream, which made it less harsh,
but still not what I hoped for.

Any obvious errors?

Thanks



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