Worlds Best Ever Real Beef Gravy Recipe - Five Day Cooking

I thought I’d share my often requested “Best Ever Beef Gravy”, it’s a long process but ultimately worth it, the gravy often becomes the main focus of the meal.

I make mine over five days although the actual working time is about 1.5 hours in total so it’s mostly letting it do its own thing.

I’ve been making this for years and have tweaked the recipe to what I think (and most of my fellow diners agree) is the most fantastic sauce for steaks, roasts or with the BBQ. It freezes well so you can make it in batches.

This is a labour of love, I’ve spent time researching the ingredients and why they work, or don’t. I’ll explain some of the reasons and science along the way, I took much of my research from Harold McGee's book on Food and Cooking which I would recommend to anyone who has wondered why their magic ingredient works or why some dishes maybe don’t

I’ve detailed each step and why they are important but is you think its TLDR I’ve summarized the whole recipe in step eight.

Ingredients

1. 2 Beef Marrow Bones
2. 250gm Beef - Skirt, brisket, shin or other cheap cut, cut into strips or small chunks
3. 1 Fennel Bulb roughly chopped
4. 1 Onion roughly chopped
5. 2 sticks Celery roughly chopped
6. Handful of Mushrooms roughly chopped
7. Handful of Tomatoes roughly chopped
8. Bay Leaves
9. Plain flour
10. Salt and Pepper (only at the end)- or MSG
11. Worcestershire Sauce/Soy Sauce (optional)
12. Water

Equipment

1. Pressure cooker or instant pot type machine
2. Slow cooker
3. Jugs, sieves sauce pans and utensils

The first step is to begin getting the flavour out of the bones.

Pre-heat your oven to 220c, put the bones on a baking tray and put them in the oven, stand them on their ends if possible to keep the bones marrow in. Bake for 30 minutes.

We’re roasting the bones to caramelise the surface proteins and fats and create the Maillard reaction which will give our gravy deeper flavours and colour.

In the meantime slice the onion, don’t worry about peeling it we’re using the whole thing.

When the bones are done (and your kitchen smells fantastic) carefully use a teaspoon to remove as much of the bone marrow as possible and refrigerate for later.

Now add the bones along with the onion and a couple of bay leaves to the pressure cooker, fill with water to the top line.

On my cooker the longest setting for pressure cooking is two hours so I set it for that, the longer the better to really drive the taste from the bones.

Pressure cooking is a speedier way to release the flavour, the high heat and pressure turn the collagen to gelatin which helps give the finished gravy a silky finish. It also drives deep into the bones to extract amino acids and minerals helping with a real savoury flavour.

Okay, yes we’re doing this for three days, why? Because I’ve found by trial and error the longer the better, two days minimum but three is perfect. We’re doing this in two stages.

Add the entire contents of the pressure cooker to your slow cooker along with the vegetables.

The veggies are a balanced mix for this, of course you can use any you have but key ingredients are:

Fennel - This has an aniseed flavour and contains anethole. anethole is lipophilic which means it loves fat and brings out the meaty flavours in slow cooked food. You can replace this with a couple of dried star anise but I find this carries the taste over to the finished gravy whereas with fennel the aniseed is not noticeable at the end.

Onion - A fundamental base in many recipes they add depth and savoury notes that balance out the rich or gamey flavors of meats and other vegetables.

Celery - Again fundamental, celery injects a clean, aromatic flavour into long-simmered pots, it also contains phthalides and glutamates that boost the savoury and umami flavours, preventing a broth from tasting a bit “meh” (flat)

Mushrooms - These add an earthy note the finished gravy, almost imperceptible but you notice more when its not there. Swap to Porcini Mushrooms if you want to go the whole hog, these have a natural beefy taste.

Tomatoes - These contain glutamates that help the gravy with a richer savoury taste.

A note on Garlic - We love garlic in our house and would probably add it to cereal given the chance, however in a long process and slow cooked food here Garlic often loses its bite and produces a bitter taste, so I tend to add at the end to the dish we’re cooking.

After this you can add any other veggies you want, but there really is no need.

So with it all in the slow cooker set it on low and leave for 48 hours. During this time give it a swirl around occasionally to agitate the veggies. Doing this step takes all the complex flavours from the veggies and is another step in getting all those great tastes from the bones.

After its sat for two days simmering away making your kitchen or whole house smell fantastic it’s time for the second slow cook.

Cut the beef into thin strips or chunks, no need to be too uniformed we want this to break down into small bits. We’re using cheap cuts here because we don’t need the texture that finer (more expensive) cuts provide.

First we need to remove the veggies. Take the bones out and set aside then sieve the liquid removing the veggies, they are done now and can go onto your compost heap.

Put the bones back in the slow cooker (we’re giving them their last hoorah) add the Bone marrow and beef strips pour the liquid back in and set on high for two hours, then reduce back to low and leave for 24 hours.

During this time the slow cooking is breaking down the collagen in the beef strips and extracting the beefy, savoury flavour we want. The bone marrow is mainly fat and we’re extracting the collagen and flavours from it.

You can see in my pictures I have more than the required amount of beef, it's difficult to get such a small amount of beef that we need, I used half of mine to make a quick jerky:

1. Cut into strips
2. Season with Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, two drops of liquid smoke and add some ground coriander and pepper, marinade overnight and dehydrate to your preferred texture - eat this to stave off your terrible hunger pangs from smelling the gravy cooking for five days.

Now we’ve got a great stock going, we need to separate the fat.

What's the difference between a stock and a broth? You can search online and find 100 reasons for each side, for me? A stock is an ingredient, a broth you drink. The End.

Remove the bones, we’re finally done with these. If you dry them out you’ll find by now they are quite brittle having removed all the minerals etc. They can be broken down quite easily and if you have the patience to grind them, be added to you compost.

Now sieve out the beef bits, these should be falling apart by now, shred them more if you have big bits left, we want small pieces that will end up in the finished sauce. Cover them and refrigerate.

Pour the liquid, which by now should be a deep gravy colour, into a jug or container and put it in the fridge over night.

After a night of chilling you should have a jug with a deep brown base and the fat risen to the top in a hard layer, it always reminds me of a pint of Guinness.

Using a butter knife (or any blunt knife) skim round the edge of the fat and gently lift off into another container. DO NOT THROW IT OUT this is one of the most flavoursome parts of the gravy and we’ll be using all of it.

Fat is flavour - Fat captures the aroma and flavour molecules and we want those.

The “liquid” should be a bit jelly like now, often mine’s been solid enough to hold upside down (do not try this)

Now it’s time to turn to the stove and finish what we started.

Using a pan big enough for all the liquid add about half of the fat you’ve taken off the top of the gravy (we'll use the rest later), heat on medium until it’s melted, there may be a bit of water still in it so cook until it’s melted and stops spitting out water droplets. We use the fat from the slow cook, many flavour molecules are attracted and sit within fat better than water so we're saving a lot of the great taste that we created.

Now, again over a medium heat, begin to add plain flour one tablespoon at a time. Keep adding until you get a sand like consistency that comes away from the bottom of the pan, allow this to cook through for a minute or two to cook out the flour.

Now, over a medium heat begin adding the gravy liquid about 250ml / 1 cup at a time. As it heats move it off the flame until it’s stirred in with no lumps, then add the next 250ml and repeat until all the liquid is combined into the roux.

If it’s too runny don't worry we will reduce it, if you think it’s too thick you can add water a little at a time to let it down. Ideally it should be a bit too runny as we want to reduce it a little.

Our gravy is pretty much complete, allow it to cook for a few minutes reducing slightly. Add the beef bits back in, these should be really tiny by now so form part of the meaty sauce with small tasty bits.

Now, and only now, taste and season with salt and pepper, or MSG.

A lot of people steer away from Monosodium glutamate (MSG) following bad, and inaccurate stories about it in the 70's, MSG actually contains less sodium than salt and adds a rich umami to dishes, I use it and recommend it, you can find out more here

Depending on the dish I will be serving it with I add Worcestershire Sauce and/or Soy Sauce.

Worcestershire Sauce is high in Glutamates and adds a sweet note to dishes, it works really well in casseroles, sauces and stews.

Soy Sauce is also high in Glutamates and it’s not just for Asian cooking, it's a binder that ties different flavours together and adds a delicate umami to meat and steak dishes. Soy Sauce can be quite salty so always add before seasoning with salt or MSG.

Now for the last bit that makes the gravy a five day recipe - leave to cool and refrigerate for 24 hours to allow all the flavours to meld and steep. It really makes the final big difference.

Now it’s ready, heat and serve with your choice of meat dish (see Step nine for one of my favourites)

- Enjoy

If you don’t want to read my droning on above, here are the steps to making the worlds best beef gravy.

1. Place Bones in a preheated oven at 220c for 30 mins.
2. When cooked remove the bone marrow.
3. Add bones to the pressure cooker with onion and bay leaf - cook for two hours.
4. Put the entire contents of the pressure cooker into your slow cooker along with all veggies - cook on low for two days!
5. Sieve the liquid to remove the veggies (keep the liquid not the veggies) keep the bones.
6. Add the bones and liquid back into the slow cooker with the beef strips and bone marrow removed earlier. Cook for 24 hours.
7. Remove the bones (we’re done with them now) and sieve to separate the by now well cooked beef, set aside and refrigerate. Pour the remaining liquid into a jug and refrigerate over night.
8. The fat will have risen to the top, carefully remove and set aside.
9. In a pan big enough for all the liquid add half of the removed fat and melt over a medium heat.
10. Add plain flour a tablespoon at a time stirring constantly until you get to a sand like consistency and it’s pulling away from the pan, let it cook through for two or three minutes.
11. Slowly begin to add the gravy liquid to the flour base and stir well, continue until you reach a consistency slightly runnier than the thickness you are aiming for.
12. Reduce by about a third over a low heat for 30-45 minutes.
13. Add the beef bits back to the gravy (tear apart if there are any chunks left).
14. Taste and season with salt and pepper (or MSG).
15. Depending on the dish add the optional Worcester Sauce and/or Soy Sauce.
16. For the best gravy refrigerate overnight.

Enjoy.

This beef gravy suits loads of of beefy dishes, but one of my favourites is beef and root veg in Yorkshire puddings, this is what I used for my title picture, it also uses up that lovely fat we have left over:

Yorkshire Puddings-

1. Mix equal quantities (by volume) of plain flour, eggs and milk (semi skimmed or whole milk).
2. Blend with a stick blender and set aside to rest for an hour, or preferably in the fridge over night.
3. Heat your oven to 230c
4. Arrange two pie dishes (you can make smaller ones with bun tins if you prefer) and add fat from the gravy equally in both dishes. Put them in the oven and heat until you can see the fat shimmering or possibly smoking.
5. Quickly pull the pans from the oven and fill each about 1cm deep with the batter mix.
6. Cook for 15-20 minutes until they have risen and are turning a lovely colour. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Top Side Beef steak

I like to use top side sliced into rounds they cook beautifully and get to a lovely fall apart texture perfect for putting in a Yorkshire pudding and can almost be cut with your fork. I put mine into a sous vide at 56c for about three hours before searing on a griddle for a few seconds, You can achieve the same with a slow cooker on low for about six hours, add a couple of tablespoons of water and herbs, I add thyme, rosemary and (for mine) chili.

Root Veg

Chop some onions, potatoes, swede, or whatever root veg you prefer into 1 inch cubes. Heat the oven to 200c. Add any remaining fat from the gravy to the pan (add a little veg oil if there is not enough) and heat in the oven for ten minutes. Now add the root veg into the hot pan and toss it over so it gets covered in that lovely fat. Cook for about 40 minutes until browned and cooked through. I also steamed some beans because I had some and a little green on the dish makes it more attractive.

To serve, add the beef into the Yorkshires (you can reheat them in a warm oven if you wish, I don't bother) along with the veg, pour a healthy amount of gravy on top and serve with English Mustard.

Enjoy.