Defined:
A sauce made by thickening and seasoning the juices from meat
Money, profit, or benefit easily or illicitly gained
I grew up with WW2 parents. Dad joined the Navy to fight the Nazis and grandma washed and folded the aluminum foil after dinner for reuse. And though Mom was not a very good cook I have a laser focused memory of thin brown gravy simmering in that drawn steel Farberware pot with the black handle from the ‘50s.
In 1991 I took my second Jeep on a tour of snowy Nevada. After a rough overnight camp in the snow, I rolled into a diner in Caliente where I tasted the glory of thick sausage gravy.
Fast forward 32 years and I discovered that a cook from the Carolinas makes it daily at the restaurant adjacent to the only public golf course in town. Thus, I purchase it by the cup and this morning, spooned it into an ice cube tray for future daily allotment.
Assuming you don’t have the luxury, let me present something from the prep storage.
Just add water and what you get is a pass to not blow your brains out when you discover that living off beans and rice is akin to living in Detroit. No, seriously.
If you’re laying up the bland starches by themselves, add these instant packets. This isn’t some Mad Max blog, it is about rational self-reliance.
I’ll discuss the enormous wealth of the spice trade in a future post.