Gravy and Stock

Remember a few weeks back when I told you about Michelle’s idea for a trulyglutenfree gravy? Well, since then, quite a few of us have been searching for stocks and stock cubes, especially veggie ones we can use if we’re not cooking a roast.

You would think was easy. Not. Pretty much every one we looked at contained rice or corn starch, plus a multitude of additives. However, with the help of Ruth Holroyd at What Allergy and Michelle at Foods Matter, I think we have come up with some choices.

Ruth found Knorr’s Simply Stock range (not to be confused with any others in their range.) I checked them out and they are indeed TGf-safe. I asked the manufacturers for ingredients and derivations as usual and here is their list of ingredients for the three stocks in the range:

BEEF:
Water, Reduced Beef Broth, Salt, Vegetable (Carrot, Leek, Celeriac), Spices, Herbs.

CHICKEN:
Water, Reduced Chicken Broth, Salt, Vegetables (Carrot, Leek, Celeriac), Spices, Herbs

VEGETABLE:
Water, Vegetables (Leek, Mushroom, Celeriac, Carrot), Salt, Garlic Purèe, Spices, Herbs.

Obviously, I can’t vouch for the spices and herbs (which we know can be mixed with flour to make them cheaper), but they look good on paper. They have been a little difficult to track down – not available in all supermarkets, but I have found the beef one in Tesco so far. Check online maybe and let us all know where you find them.

Next, Ruth spotted the Marigold Vegetable Bouillon, but it contains lactose so I wouldn’t recommend it. Here are the ingredients as it is strictly truly gluten free but since many gluten sensitives are also dairy sensitive, I would avoid it. Also, I can’t be sure of the hydrolised (sic) vegetable protein, but I suspect it comes from soya:

Ingredients

Sea salt, hydrolised vegetable protein, potato starch, palm oil, vegetables 80% (celery, onions, carrots, leeks) lactose, spices (tumeric, white pepper, garlic, mace, nutmeg) parsley, lovage.

Finally, I also checked out some Tesco Beef Stock Cubes that Ruth recommended. Not great for us, but they responded that there is no corn in the starches, flavourings, caramel, veg fat etc:

“I’m happy to confirm that there is no grain of any type used at all in the production of this product.”

Here are the ingredients: Salt, sugar, vegetable fat, potato starch, yeast extract, natural flavouring, beef extract (2%), colour (plain caramel), celery powder, carrot, parsley, perservative (Sulphur dioxide).

So, a few choices there for you to look at. As for thickeners, you could use potato starch, soya flour or arrowroot, although watch you don’t use too much of the latter; when I did, gloopy was not the word!

To summarise, I think the best option is to follow Michelle’s idea of making a gravy with the juices, wine and onion and perhaps a little thickener if needed when you are making a roast. For other times, use the Simply Stock or your own (make a batch and freeze in cubes) instead of meat juices.

You can of course use the stocks mentioned for your soups/quinoa risottos etc too.

Let me know how you get on so we can all learn. I am not one of nature’s ‘classic’ cooks; more the ‘throw it all in and see how it comes out’ type, so all this  making roast dinners and baking bread etc is quite new to me. If it’s your forte, do share your expertise for us and help us learn!

With thanks to Ruth and Michelle for their invaluable help on this one. Follow the links above to check out their blog posts on this subject too.