Da'fuk

[Inkubus]

[pattylt]

I’m just glad that cornstarch thickens gravy! Nothin better than a beef stew thickened so you can sop up the gravy with biscuits!

[pattylt]

Oh, did you ever see the episode of Big Bang Theory where they put wet cornstarch on top of a speaker and played a heavy bass tune! Awesome!

[SYZ]

A common game downunder after a few party blunts—with
the cornstarch—was called, of all things "cumshort" in the
1980s.  We made up a ball of the stuff around the size of a
tennis ball, and passed it around the group with the last
person to hold it intact being, for some reason, the loser.

[Inkubus]

Ma it's me, third from the right

[SYZ]

Ma it's me, third from the right

    So you're the good looking one?

[Fireball]

^ So true!  Later in life, they'll all be trying to figure out who's who.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I’m just glad that cornstarch thickens gravy!  Nothin better than a beef stew thickened so you can sop up the gravy with biscuits!

A good roux based on cornstarch is key to my stews. Cornstarch, butter, oil, milk, and sour cream, along with some seasonings. I do it in a separate pot and add it into the stew by stirring. It's a little more work but well worth the effort.

Melt the butter into the oil, season at this time. Add your corn starch. Stir constantly. As it thickens add milk to keep it loose but not liquid, and near the end a good dollop of sour cream. Kill the heat right when it starts to simmer, remove from heat, and then stir in as the stewpot starts its own simmering.

[pattylt]

I’m just glad that cornstarch thickens gravy!  Nothin better than a beef stew thickened so you can sop up the gravy with biscuits!

A good roux based on cornstarch is key to my stews. Cornstarch, butter, oil, milk, and sour cream, along with some seasonings. I do it in a separate pot and add it into the stew by stirring. It's a little more work but well worth the effort.

Melt the butter into the oil, season at this time. Add your corn starch. Stir constantly. As it thickens add milk to keep it loose but not liquid, and near the end a good dollop of sour cream. Kill the heat right when it starts to simmer, remove from heat, and then stir in as the stewpot starts its own simmering.

I’ll have to try that!  I just mix the cornstarch and some water then slowly add it to the stew while stirring until it achieves the thickness I want.  As long as the stew has some fat in it…which it always does…it’ll thicken up nicely.

[Fireball]

I'll be dipped. I always thought flour was used to thicken. Obviously, I know jack about that. Interestingly enough, my wife ain't all that good at gravy, either. One of my aunts, who was a great cook in the mold of her mother (my dad's mother, as well) used to make some sort of "clear" gravy- a brown liquid. Please don't tell me it was just fat, pretty please. I haven't had it in many decades, in any event.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I’ll have to try that!  I just mix the cornstarch and some water then slowly add it to the stew while stirring until it achieves the thickness I want.  As long as the stew has some fat in it…which it always does…it’ll thicken up nicely.

Two keys to it:

1) never add more corn starch after adding milk, you end up lumpy, start thick and thin it out by stirring in milk by small amounts, and

2) keep it smooth and take it off the heat as soon as you see sings of simmer, i.e. the first small bubbles around the edge of the saucepan.

Also, this is done in a warmed saucepan but with low heat. You don't want to be jockeying the burner knob.

You end up with a nice creamy roux if you do it right. Don't walk away from the stove during this process. Stir constantly. Five minutes well-spent.