I put a lot of thought in to preparing this roast (45 minutes in the recliner) and how I was going to present it to you. That all went out the window just now as I realized what I’ve been doing. I’ve been roasting fowl and beast so I could reclaim the best possible gravy I could muster. How can I include butter and savory herbs to give me that slow roasted leavening in the bottom of the pan? Sure I like the black & brown crusty bits, but what if I slowed the oven down a bit and just caramelized everything? Would the onion, garlic, rosemary and butter all come together as friends? Yes, yes they would. Would I care that the beef wouldn’t have a dark crust? No, no I wouldn’t. Would you like to come play? Let’s all take a journey now to Meathenge Labs where meat and gravy meet as old friends, comon.

This post is more about putting together a meal that’ll render you some outstanding bits and fats for making gravy than it is about a technical paper about making gravy.
I think we all know how sweet and succulent caramelized onions can be, good in and on many things. Everyone’s added them to soups and stews for just this reason. Yeah, well I wanted to deliver another load of punch to the onions for the roasting with meat.
All ingredients should be at room temperature by the time they hit the oven, got it?
Since the onions should marinate for 30 minutes to an hour or so, start with them first.

I used 3 small yellow onions, you use what you got. Since we’ll be using a 325 degree oven (preheat it now if you’d like) and the roast isn’t that large, slice the onions really thin, 1/8″ or so. Remember, the thinner you cut stuff, the faster it’ll cook and we want the onions done. SEPARATE THE ONION RINGS OUT of their circles, more surface area means more flavor absorption of the marinade. Crush maybe 4 or 5 good sized garlic cloves in there too.
Use your best extra virgin and make a few trips around the bowl, you want enough to coat. Zest a large orange and get that in there, s&p to taste, a goodly amount of Survival Spice and some fresh roughly minced rosemary. Use your hands to stir it around and set aside. It smells heavenly, huh?
Next you’ll need a 2.5 to 3 pound beef roast, something good for a Thursday evening dinner. Rub with extra virgin, s&p and your favorite spice blend, I used the S.S. Set your meat aside.

Assemblage time!
Here’s how I wanted it. The onions were going to be the showcase flavor power-house and the meat would provide the fat for the flavor delivery system. This means, no citrus zest for the meat. But it did get some roughly minced rosemary, perched up there under the butter. See, as the butter melts it will coat the rosemary and bring it to the meat and then down in to the pan. Why butter? This particular beef roast, a ball-tip, doesn’t have that much fat. And besides, everything’s better with butter, especially meat. Oh and it would help brown the meat a little. Make sure you set your meat on a trivet or little wire rack. The onions are okay where they be.
Cooking times will vary due to roast variables, this one was done inside an hour or so.
Pull roast when done and set aside. Remove onions and save for garnish. Lift out your trivet and gaze in wonderment at the start of Beautiful Gravy. Yank up the heat and get the fat bubblin’. Start spooning in flour until you get a wet paste. Cook that a little bit, a few minutes. You wanna toast the flour a bit, ya know. Grab your wisk and start adding good stock, beef or chicken. It’s going to be good no matter which stock you use. You could try veggie stock, but I have no idea what that tastes like, so I can’t guide you there. Add the stock in increments, so you can stop and play with it. You want to see what consistency it is and whether you want to stop or keep going. It’s up to you, have gravy the way you want. After it looks good, let it simmer a bit, maybe 5 minutes or so. As most know, there are many ways of making great gravy or pan sauces. This is just one easy way of getting the job done. You could add fresh herbs, shallots and/or mushrooms to the bubbling fat before the flour. Saute them a bit, then start adding flour. Either way, it’s gravy and it’s love.
And that, is pretty much that. I cracked a goodly amount of Sarawak Creamy White Peppercorns over all, this brings a bright punch to a light gravy filled beef roast meal.

You’re welcome,
Biggles