November 1, 2025 • 15 mins
Spooky season is over and turkey season is upon us. Almost equally important as the turkey is the gravy! Take a listen to these gravy making tips!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Niel Savedra.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to kf i EM six forty the four
Purport on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, Kayla, Yaniel,
what key opens the door to my belly in November?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Oh God, I don't, I don't do. I want to
know a turkey.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Let me teach you got it? Let me teach you
who had it? Condam ther and Nathan, Let me teach
you had it. It's a columnarage.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Let me teach you who had Let me teach you.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I am sixty live EveryWare on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, everybody,
it's the four Report, all things Food, beverage and beyond.
I am your well fed host, Neil Servader. How do
you do? Happy November to you? November? First, look at this.
I say it every year, people pooh poo me. But
(01:14):
the minute you hit August and you slide out of August,
it's the next year, barely blinked October boom, first Friday,
Halloween in eleven years, last night, and that insane and
(01:34):
it's done. It's done. And I love that time of year.
But you know what this is when it's when Kyle
and I put our elbow pads or knee pads, our
helmets on, because this is fighting season when it comes
to food, this is your time to shine. This is
whether you're going to be a guest at somebody else's event,
(01:55):
whether you're hosting this year for Thanksgiving, this, the next
four show, this, and the next handful of shows, We're
going to be focusing on those things, introducing you to
people you need to know. As a matter of fact,
as I said, a week from today is Thanksgrilling, our
second annual thanks Grilling at Wildfork Foods in Lagun and Negal,
(02:18):
and it is going to be a blast. I think
we had fifteen sixteen hundred people last time, something along
that lines, and we'd love for it to be even bigger.
So come on out. We're gonna have a great time.
They treat you like like we treat you, and I'm
just so impressed the folks over at Wildfork Foods the
(02:39):
way they treat our listeners. And you come out and
they will give you great food. We're gonna be talking
to my buddy Wing Lamb from Waho's Fish Tacos. He's
going to be coming up in just a little bit
and he's gonna talk about the event, he'll be out
there as well. But we're gonna have a great time.
Right now, I want to talk about gravy for Technique
of the Week. Gravy is an interest. Think it is
(03:01):
not difficult. There is some techniques to it that make
it better. I want to talk to you about the
o hell, I made a mistake and how do I
salvage it. But I want you to not be intimidated
by gravy. It is not difficult at its basics, but
(03:21):
there are some things you should know about. And the
reason why I say this because I've been intimidated by
it at times as well. I remember one Thanksgiving at
our house, I just kind of froze at that part.
I think I was overwhelmed with getting some other things done,
and I looked at my brother Daniel. I almost said
former marine, but as they will tell you, once a marine,
(03:42):
always a marine. And he was a cook in the military,
and then when he came out, he was a cook
at like Dupars or something, I think, And so I go, Daniel,
you got to help me with a gravy, bro You've
got to help me with a gravy. And he took
the helm and took care of it. But the truth
of the matter is what you're dealing with is a
couple of primary items. You're going to use. The fond Okay,
(04:06):
the fond is the bits of the turkey, the bits
of the veggies, these types of things that are going
to stick to the pan. Those things build up this great,
wonderful brown, luxurious, flavorful stuffs. And what you do is
(04:28):
you're going to release those from the pan. And as
you put a liquid in there and you release those
things from the pan, it's called deglazing. Deglazing is the
big fancy term for that. You deglaze the pan with
liquid that could be wine, it could be a stock
like a vegetable stock or a chicken stock or what
(04:49):
have you. Even water, but I prefer anything you add
to a recipe try and make it have flavor. So,
although there are some things where you have to have
water alone, most of the time you can substitute water
with something with a little bit more flavor and it's
going to add a deeper texture and to whatever you're making.
(05:14):
In this case, it's going to be your gravy. So
the roasting pan is going to be crucial here because
everything you put you put your bird on top, but
underneath you have all of your your your veggies, and
there your carrots and of course onions and any of
these things in there, they're going to build the most
(05:35):
beautiful flavorful goodness that is going to come off of
that bird onto the bottom of the pan. First problem
if you don't have enough liquid or juices in the pan,
and you should check it every now and again to
make sure that it's not drying up or cooking off reducing,
(05:57):
because once it reduces down, if you're going to have
problems if you don't have anything to work with to
make the gravy from these drippings are going to be key.
So you could add a little liquid every now and
again if you have to. But if for some strange
reason that it ends up cooking all the weight down
or you don't have what you need, I'll tell you
(06:19):
something very simple, and I've done this before myself. You
just pull off bits of skin or bits of the
meat on the bottom of the bird and you can
put those in a pan and make your gravy with those.
Not a problem. You still get all that great wonderful
flavor there. You got to separate the fat. You use
a gravy separator or something like that so that you
(06:41):
don't have too much of the fat in there. The
drippings will will sit, the fat will rise to the top,
and then you skim it off. You're going to need
a measured amount of fat for the what we call
the roo. The root is a fancy French term for
a mixture of a a thickener and a fat. So,
(07:03):
whether the fat in this case is the fat from
the drippings, whether it is a butter, you're going to
have equal parts butter in equal parts thickener. And most
often people are using flower ap flower every day all
purpose flour, and you're mixing those equal amount and that's
going to become your special thickener to get that silky,
(07:27):
sexy loveliness that you want in your gravy. So you
start with that as your base. It is those drippings
that's going to build your base. When we come back,
I'm going to tell you how you're going to continue
to thicker that boost that o mommy, that is that wonderful,
unctious and sort of silkiness that you want that is
(07:49):
almost indescribable at times. Okay, So we'll get into that
and get you the perfect gravy for this Thanksgiving is
we start November here on the Fork Report. A lot
of guests get to today, a lot of wonderful people
coming through the building and we're excited to introduce them
to you. So stick around and go nowhere it's the
Fork Report on Nil Savedra KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Neil Savandra here, Happy Thanksgiving time? Happy uh? November?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (08:27):
What do you tis? The season to eat? So now
it's the time to start going out, go to Tarja
or wherever you go, get yourself some nice stretch you
pants and get ready for it because this is our
season and it's going to be great. As a matter
of fact, a week from today wants you to come out.
The Fork Report and Wild Fork Foods teaming up again
(08:48):
for the second annual Thanksgrilling. It was wonderfully perfectly packed
last time, and we'd love to see it even bigger
because boy do they roll out the good stuff. Billy's
going to be with me the whole show, co hosting
with me and well, I flatter myself. The reality is
he's going for free food. They'll be great samples to
(09:11):
try of all the wonderful eats they have at Wild
Fork Foods. So again, join me and my buddy Bill
Handle next Saturday, November eighth, from two to five pm
at the Wild Fork location in Lagoon and Negal. They're
on the corner of La Pause and Aliso Creek Road,
and it's going to be a blast. They'll be giveaways
and all kinds of prizes and things like that, but
ultimately we just want to introduce you to what a
(09:33):
great store this is for your proteins and beyond, and
have chefs come on and talking about grilling your Thanksgiving meals.
I mean, you can do desserts on the grill, you
can do your turkey on the grill, so many things.
And my buddy Wing Lamb from Wahoo's Fish Tacos is
going to be coming up and just a little bit
(09:54):
talking about that as well, because he will be out there,
so join us. Then Technique of the week, we're talking
about gravy, this wonderful flavored, colorful, silky goodness that we
put on just about everything during the holidays, and in
this particular case, it comes down to first the drippings
the fond, you deglaze the pan. You pick those up,
(10:15):
you separate the fat, you to boost the oma, the umami.
Rather a little bit of waste. Your sister sauce, I
hate that. Can't be right. Your sister's the worst sauce. No,
that's not right. Worcester Shire sauce with Worcester worcester Shire
sauce and or soy sauce. A spool, a spoonful of
(10:39):
bullion paste, fruit drop, A few drops of balsamic vinegar
is one of my favorites. Just a few drops of
balsamic vinegar in that gravy, boom goes the dynamite. You
don't think I know sports references. I do take it
to the pain. You don't want to get that l
(11:01):
on your gravy. You want that w It's not about
the name on the back. It's about the name on
the front of the jersey. No, all right. Anyways, you
add your aromatics, that's like your minced shallats, your onions,
(11:22):
A little bit of garlic and fat before adding your flour.
You thicken that up. But the key here is don't
start throwing everything in at once. Flower actually is raw,
believe it or not. A flower can actually go bad too,
So have the best ingredients, freshest ingredients on this. But
you want to cook off the rawness of the flower,
(11:42):
otherwise it gets this weird, toothy kind of raw flowery.
So you make sure that when you're doing a master
roo here, you've got that equal parts flower equal parts fat.
You just slowly let it cook down. You want to
get the raw flower taste off is still going to
be blonde. If you start to brown it, that's okay too.
(12:04):
Just keep in mind the darker it is, the nuttier
the flavor, and you don't want to you don't want
to burn it because that's no good. Wis constantly. We'll
keep that. You want it lump free. Use warm liquid
when you're adding, you want to learn warm or hot
stock to your root. Keeps everything incorporating. You simmer it
(12:25):
till it get you know, gently, several minutes five ten
minutes or so to thicken, develop that flavor, and if
there are lumps, you get those lumps. It's okay. I
did this at my mom's house for something, I don't
know if it was Thanksgiving or something else where. We
had gravy and it just was not cooperating temperature, age
(12:49):
of the ingredients. There's all kinds of variables. It just
was not And my mom looked at me, she goes,
this is just it's not breaking up, Like doesn't matter.
Run it through a sieve, get those chunks out. You know,
trouble shooting. The vast majority of cooking is troubleshooting getting
water out where it's you know, moisture out where it
(13:10):
shouldn't be, or moisture in where it should be. I mean,
you're constantly battling with these things. It is troubleshooting after troubleshooting,
but it's not ruined and it's not a failure until
you throw it out. So continue to season it regularly,
not too much, especially when you're reducing. When you reduce,
(13:33):
keep in mind that the amount of liquid up against
the amount of salt is going to change, so your
seasoning can change. So in the case of something where
you're reducing, it's okay to add that season at the
end there because it's going to concentrate and you don't
want it to be a salt bomb at the end.
If it's too thick, it's get a little more stock
(13:54):
or water. One tablespoon at a time. If it's too thin,
simmer it a little longer. It's going to reduce that
steam is releasing the water, getting that out of there,
Whisking a little corn starch or flour slurry, not just
a flour flour slurry would be in this case. You
(14:15):
could use like the corn starch with just a little
bit of cold water. That's the exception here. And then
at the end to make it glossy and velvety and
sexy as hell, swirl in a tablespoon that's about a
quarter inch or so of your butter slab there, just
a tablespoon of cold butter just before serving, and you
(14:38):
just swirl that in and it just becomes sexy and
lovely and thick and silky and velvety and all those
great descriptors that we all love when we're talking about food.
All right, Thanksgiving is upon us. We're in November, gang,
this is it. This is where the rubber turkey hits
the road, and we're gonna have family over, We're gonna eat,
and it's gonna be a good time. So go no where.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from KFI a M six forty
Hey, it's Niel Savedra.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to kf i EM six forty the four
Purport on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, Kayla, Yaniel,
what key opens the door to my belly in November?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Oh God, I don't, I don't do. I want to
know a turkey.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Let me teach you got it? Let me teach you
who had it? Condam ther and Nathan, Let me teach
you had it. It's a columnarage.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Let me teach you who had Let me teach you.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I am sixty live EveryWare on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, everybody,
it's the four Report, all things Food, beverage and beyond.
I am your well fed host, Neil Servader. How do
you do? Happy November to you? November? First, look at this.
I say it every year, people pooh poo me. But
(01:14):
the minute you hit August and you slide out of August,
it's the next year, barely blinked October boom, first Friday,
Halloween in eleven years, last night, and that insane and
(01:34):
it's done. It's done. And I love that time of year.
But you know what this is when it's when Kyle
and I put our elbow pads or knee pads, our
helmets on, because this is fighting season when it comes
to food, this is your time to shine. This is
whether you're going to be a guest at somebody else's event,
(01:55):
whether you're hosting this year for Thanksgiving, this, the next
four show, this, and the next handful of shows, We're
going to be focusing on those things, introducing you to
people you need to know. As a matter of fact,
as I said, a week from today is Thanksgrilling, our
second annual thanks Grilling at Wildfork Foods in Lagun and Negal,
(02:18):
and it is going to be a blast. I think
we had fifteen sixteen hundred people last time, something along
that lines, and we'd love for it to be even bigger.
So come on out. We're gonna have a great time.
They treat you like like we treat you, and I'm
just so impressed the folks over at Wildfork Foods the
(02:39):
way they treat our listeners. And you come out and
they will give you great food. We're gonna be talking
to my buddy Wing Lamb from Waho's Fish Tacos. He's
going to be coming up in just a little bit
and he's gonna talk about the event, he'll be out
there as well. But we're gonna have a great time.
Right now, I want to talk about gravy for Technique
of the Week. Gravy is an interest. Think it is
(03:01):
not difficult. There is some techniques to it that make
it better. I want to talk to you about the
o hell, I made a mistake and how do I
salvage it. But I want you to not be intimidated
by gravy. It is not difficult at its basics, but
(03:21):
there are some things you should know about. And the
reason why I say this because I've been intimidated by
it at times as well. I remember one Thanksgiving at
our house, I just kind of froze at that part.
I think I was overwhelmed with getting some other things done,
and I looked at my brother Daniel. I almost said
former marine, but as they will tell you, once a marine,
(03:42):
always a marine. And he was a cook in the military,
and then when he came out, he was a cook
at like Dupars or something, I think, And so I go, Daniel,
you got to help me with a gravy, bro You've
got to help me with a gravy. And he took
the helm and took care of it. But the truth
of the matter is what you're dealing with is a
couple of primary items. You're going to use. The fond Okay,
(04:06):
the fond is the bits of the turkey, the bits
of the veggies, these types of things that are going
to stick to the pan. Those things build up this great,
wonderful brown, luxurious, flavorful stuffs. And what you do is
(04:28):
you're going to release those from the pan. And as
you put a liquid in there and you release those
things from the pan, it's called deglazing. Deglazing is the
big fancy term for that. You deglaze the pan with
liquid that could be wine, it could be a stock
like a vegetable stock or a chicken stock or what
(04:49):
have you. Even water, but I prefer anything you add
to a recipe try and make it have flavor. So,
although there are some things where you have to have
water alone, most of the time you can substitute water
with something with a little bit more flavor and it's
going to add a deeper texture and to whatever you're making.
(05:14):
In this case, it's going to be your gravy. So
the roasting pan is going to be crucial here because
everything you put you put your bird on top, but
underneath you have all of your your your veggies, and
there your carrots and of course onions and any of
these things in there, they're going to build the most
(05:35):
beautiful flavorful goodness that is going to come off of
that bird onto the bottom of the pan. First problem
if you don't have enough liquid or juices in the pan,
and you should check it every now and again to
make sure that it's not drying up or cooking off reducing,
(05:57):
because once it reduces down, if you're going to have
problems if you don't have anything to work with to
make the gravy from these drippings are going to be key.
So you could add a little liquid every now and
again if you have to. But if for some strange
reason that it ends up cooking all the weight down
or you don't have what you need, I'll tell you
(06:19):
something very simple, and I've done this before myself. You
just pull off bits of skin or bits of the
meat on the bottom of the bird and you can
put those in a pan and make your gravy with those.
Not a problem. You still get all that great wonderful
flavor there. You got to separate the fat. You use
a gravy separator or something like that so that you
(06:41):
don't have too much of the fat in there. The
drippings will will sit, the fat will rise to the top,
and then you skim it off. You're going to need
a measured amount of fat for the what we call
the roo. The root is a fancy French term for
a mixture of a a thickener and a fat. So,
(07:03):
whether the fat in this case is the fat from
the drippings, whether it is a butter, you're going to
have equal parts butter in equal parts thickener. And most
often people are using flower ap flower every day all
purpose flour, and you're mixing those equal amount and that's
going to become your special thickener to get that silky,
(07:27):
sexy loveliness that you want in your gravy. So you
start with that as your base. It is those drippings
that's going to build your base. When we come back,
I'm going to tell you how you're going to continue
to thicker that boost that o mommy, that is that wonderful,
unctious and sort of silkiness that you want that is
(07:49):
almost indescribable at times. Okay, So we'll get into that
and get you the perfect gravy for this Thanksgiving is
we start November here on the Fork Report. A lot
of guests get to today, a lot of wonderful people
coming through the building and we're excited to introduce them
to you. So stick around and go nowhere it's the
Fork Report on Nil Savedra KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Neil Savandra here, Happy Thanksgiving time? Happy uh? November?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (08:27):
What do you tis? The season to eat? So now
it's the time to start going out, go to Tarja
or wherever you go, get yourself some nice stretch you
pants and get ready for it because this is our
season and it's going to be great. As a matter
of fact, a week from today wants you to come out.
The Fork Report and Wild Fork Foods teaming up again
(08:48):
for the second annual Thanksgrilling. It was wonderfully perfectly packed
last time, and we'd love to see it even bigger
because boy do they roll out the good stuff. Billy's
going to be with me the whole show, co hosting
with me and well, I flatter myself. The reality is
he's going for free food. They'll be great samples to
(09:11):
try of all the wonderful eats they have at Wild
Fork Foods. So again, join me and my buddy Bill
Handle next Saturday, November eighth, from two to five pm
at the Wild Fork location in Lagoon and Negal. They're
on the corner of La Pause and Aliso Creek Road,
and it's going to be a blast. They'll be giveaways
and all kinds of prizes and things like that, but
ultimately we just want to introduce you to what a
(09:33):
great store this is for your proteins and beyond, and
have chefs come on and talking about grilling your Thanksgiving meals.
I mean, you can do desserts on the grill, you
can do your turkey on the grill, so many things.
And my buddy Wing Lamb from Wahoo's Fish Tacos is
going to be coming up and just a little bit
(09:54):
talking about that as well, because he will be out there,
so join us. Then Technique of the week, we're talking
about gravy, this wonderful flavored, colorful, silky goodness that we
put on just about everything during the holidays, and in
this particular case, it comes down to first the drippings
the fond, you deglaze the pan. You pick those up,
(10:15):
you separate the fat, you to boost the oma, the umami.
Rather a little bit of waste. Your sister sauce, I
hate that. Can't be right. Your sister's the worst sauce. No,
that's not right. Worcester Shire sauce with Worcester worcester Shire
sauce and or soy sauce. A spool, a spoonful of
(10:39):
bullion paste, fruit drop, A few drops of balsamic vinegar
is one of my favorites. Just a few drops of
balsamic vinegar in that gravy, boom goes the dynamite. You
don't think I know sports references. I do take it
to the pain. You don't want to get that l
(11:01):
on your gravy. You want that w It's not about
the name on the back. It's about the name on
the front of the jersey. No, all right. Anyways, you
add your aromatics, that's like your minced shallats, your onions,
(11:22):
A little bit of garlic and fat before adding your flour.
You thicken that up. But the key here is don't
start throwing everything in at once. Flower actually is raw,
believe it or not. A flower can actually go bad too,
So have the best ingredients, freshest ingredients on this. But
you want to cook off the rawness of the flower,
(11:42):
otherwise it gets this weird, toothy kind of raw flowery.
So you make sure that when you're doing a master
roo here, you've got that equal parts flower equal parts fat.
You just slowly let it cook down. You want to
get the raw flower taste off is still going to
be blonde. If you start to brown it, that's okay too.
(12:04):
Just keep in mind the darker it is, the nuttier
the flavor, and you don't want to you don't want
to burn it because that's no good. Wis constantly. We'll
keep that. You want it lump free. Use warm liquid
when you're adding, you want to learn warm or hot
stock to your root. Keeps everything incorporating. You simmer it
(12:25):
till it get you know, gently, several minutes five ten
minutes or so to thicken, develop that flavor, and if
there are lumps, you get those lumps. It's okay. I
did this at my mom's house for something, I don't
know if it was Thanksgiving or something else where. We
had gravy and it just was not cooperating temperature, age
(12:49):
of the ingredients. There's all kinds of variables. It just
was not And my mom looked at me, she goes,
this is just it's not breaking up, Like doesn't matter.
Run it through a sieve, get those chunks out. You know,
trouble shooting. The vast majority of cooking is troubleshooting getting
water out where it's you know, moisture out where it
(13:10):
shouldn't be, or moisture in where it should be. I mean,
you're constantly battling with these things. It is troubleshooting after troubleshooting,
but it's not ruined and it's not a failure until
you throw it out. So continue to season it regularly,
not too much, especially when you're reducing. When you reduce,
(13:33):
keep in mind that the amount of liquid up against
the amount of salt is going to change, so your
seasoning can change. So in the case of something where
you're reducing, it's okay to add that season at the
end there because it's going to concentrate and you don't
want it to be a salt bomb at the end.
If it's too thick, it's get a little more stock
(13:54):
or water. One tablespoon at a time. If it's too thin,
simmer it a little longer. It's going to reduce that
steam is releasing the water, getting that out of there,
Whisking a little corn starch or flour slurry, not just
a flour flour slurry would be in this case. You
(14:15):
could use like the corn starch with just a little
bit of cold water. That's the exception here. And then
at the end to make it glossy and velvety and
sexy as hell, swirl in a tablespoon that's about a
quarter inch or so of your butter slab there, just
a tablespoon of cold butter just before serving, and you
(14:38):
just swirl that in and it just becomes sexy and
lovely and thick and silky and velvety and all those
great descriptors that we all love when we're talking about food.
All right, Thanksgiving is upon us. We're in November, gang,
this is it. This is where the rubber turkey hits
the road, and we're gonna have family over, We're gonna eat,
and it's gonna be a good time. So go no where.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from KFI a M six forty
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!