Gravy's Cooking Thread

lurkingdirk said:

Something I've had great success with is this: sear the loin hard, then put it in the oven to get it to about 120 degrees. In the mean time, make stuffing. And make it wetter than you usually do. When the loin is at 120 take it out, make a ring with it if you can, and put the stuffing both inside the ring and around it. If you can't make a ring, just surround it with the wet, uncooked stuffing. Put it back in the oven until the stuffing is where you want it to be. While you're letting that cook, you can make a gravy using some of the liquid in your baking dish from the loin. When everything is done, make fairly thin slices of the loin, serve these thin slices with plenty of stuffing and cover the whole thing with the gravy you made. Pork gravy is incredibly delicious, especially if you include a little bacon in it.

I've done this a lot, never feels dry, and if you seared the pork well in the first place you get a good texture combination with the pork and stuffing.

This dish pairs incredibly well with green beans cooked as you like them. Also goes very well with drunken apples, or, my favourite, drunken pears. Cook the fruit in butter and whiskey until it is soft, but not yet applesauce. A little crunch and tartness from (for example) green apples done this way is great. Add a little brown sugar to the fruit, not too much, and it's a nice plate of food.

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Right on!

That's similar to one of the things I do if I'm making pork loin. I'll either do a small section of a loin or cut it into super thick chops, bread and panko and sear, and set aside. Then make a gravy out of the rendered fat, and I'll cheat by getting a good can of cream of mushroom soup. Mix all that together dump it into a big Pyrex dish, and place my chops or loin in there, and slow roast to desired internal temp.

Meanwhile you're roasting a bulb of garlic with lots of olive oil for mashed potatoes, and making stuffing and other veggies. Then throw it all together and it's a wonderful meal.

Had a great grandmother who used to do breaded veal chops and it was one of the greatest things I've ever had, and one of those special occasion meals for birthdays or visiting with family. Anytime I get a chance to go to Wisconsin, one of my uncles will always make it. Veal is just so goddamned expensive now, we started using pork in this method, and it's close and scratches that itch. A good piece of fatty loin it's the closest thing, and it's way more cost-effective.

Man now I really want veal.

Szeth said:

I take it out at 140 and rest it for 10 minutes. Dot thermometer makes cooking meat too easy.

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popsicledeath said:

For people who aren't that into cooking and/or cheap, sous vide is the way to go. I've rarely had any issues with pork loin in the oven, but with sous vide it's non-issue. Can't screw up even the leanest and/or cheapest cuts of meat like a pork loin, so it'll pay for itself in no time. And It's nice because it frees up attention for other things so you're not having to juggle too much and risk overcooking the meat.

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I've got one of the original or maybe second gen anovas. I was sous viding stuff pretty regularly but I haven't broken that damn thing out of my pantry and eons. At the last time I did anything with it was sous viding a couple of tri-tips for my annual get together with my buddies from college and high school. They turned out perfect after throwing them onto a hot grill to sear off.

I used to use the damn thing all the time, but after getting a thermal pen, I just sit and constantly monitor temps when I'm grilling and I'm rarely disappointed with the results, I'll screw up sometimes, but just consider it practice. I just found that the sous vide sometimes would turn the meat a little too mealy, or screw with the texture. I know there's a little bit of finesse when using it to make certain it seems normal, but I think I just like constantly probing. I understand it's definitely more of a convenience thing, but if I only do a big production meal once a week, I don't mind giving whatever that special attention.

I did my wagyu chuck roast experiment the other night and man turned out perfect. America's test kitchen has never steered me wrong. I've got a choice Chuck Roast trust up and dry brining for 24 hours that I'm cooking tonight just to see what the difference is between the two grades.

No sous vide, just monitoring the grill and temps.
Going to make some cheese potatoes my mom used to make, and grill some asparagus. The wonderful thing is the leftovers from the previous one make amazing roast beef sandwiches with the horseradish sauce I made.




Might be hard to tell but that was maybe a four and a half to 5 lb chuck roast. I'll snap some photos of the one I'm throwing on this evening prior to cooking. Wife and I were both really impressed with doing this stupid simple technique, and I never would have thought just tying such a cheap cut of meat up would have given us great roast beef results. Yeah it's not the same as a tenderloin, but it's much beefier and the fat really helps. I think it's going to be one of those things that we do fairly often especially when I can find Chuck roasts on sale.

My girlfriend makes great pot roasts in the instapot. When I have tried to do it, they sucked. I haven't bothered to get her to teach me because I'd rather just use the slow cooker. Nothing better than coming in the door after a long day of work and smelling your pot roast that's ready to eat.