Chef Thomas
Anchovy Sauce
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Culinary Explorer
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Cider Gravy
Created by Chef Thomas
A West Country gravy made in the roasting tin with dry cider, good mustard, and the sticky juices the pork has left behind, ready in the time it takes a joint to rest.
Sauces & Condiments
British
Comfort Food
5 min
Active Time
15 min cook•20 min total
YieldEnough for 4 to 6
The first proper cold of October, when the apples are in and the kitchen smells of a roast. That's when this gravy makes sense.
Cider gravy is a West Country thing. Somerset mostly, though Herefordshire will argue, and both would be right. The principle is simple and perfect: the orchard and the pig belong together, and a sauce that brings them to the same plate is the kind of thrift that tastes like genius. Dry cider into the roasting tin, a spoonful of mustard, whatever dark sticky juices the pork has given up, and a few minutes of attention while the joint rests under foil. No stock cube, no gravy browning, no cornflour slurry thickened in a mug. Just the tin, the hob, and your nose.
Use a proper dry cider. Not sweet, not anything that calls itself an apple drink. Something from a farm if you can get it, flat and unfussy, the kind that tastes of real apples and not much else. Sweet cider will turn the gravy syrupy, which isn't what you want. You're after sharpness to cut through the richness of the pork. The mustard does the rest.
I wrote it in the notebook once: cider, mustard, Sunday, rain. That's about the whole of it.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
pan juices from a roasted pork joint
Quantity
all of them
with the browned bits left in the tin
plain flour
Quantity
1 tablespoon
dry cider
Quantity
300ml
West Country if possible, never sweet
chicken or pork stock
Quantity
300ml
homemade if you have it
English mustard
Quantity
1 to 2 teaspoons
wholegrain also works
unsalted butter
Quantity
15g
cold, cubed
sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pan juices from a roasted pork jointwith the browned bits left in the tin | all of them |
| plain flour | 1 tablespoon |
| dry ciderWest Country if possible, never sweet | 300ml |
| chicken or pork stockhomemade if you have it | 300ml |
| English mustardwholegrain also works | 1 to 2 teaspoons |
| unsalted buttercold, cubed | 15g |
| sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •The roasting tin the pork was cooked in
- •Wooden spoon
- •Small warm jug for serving
- •Fine sieve, if you want a smooth finish
Instructions
- 1
Rest the pork
Lift the pork out of its roasting tin and onto a warm plate. Cover loosely with foil and leave it to rest. The meat needs twenty minutes or so, which is exactly how long the gravy takes to come together. Convenient, that.
Any juices the pork releases while resting should go back into the gravy at the end. Don't waste a drop. That's where the flavour hides. - 2
Pour off the fat
Tilt the tin. Most of the clear fat will pool at one end. Spoon or pour off all but a tablespoon or two, leaving behind the dark, sticky juices and the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the tin. That's where the flavour lives. Don't scrub anything away.
- 3
Make a loose roux
Set the tin over a medium heat on the hob, across two burners if it helps. Sprinkle the flour over the fat and juices and stir it in with a wooden spoon until you have a loose, muddy paste. Let it cook for a minute, no more, until it smells nutty rather than raw. Keep stirring. Flour that sits on heat without moving will catch, and burnt flour is bitter beyond saving.
- 4
Deglaze with cider
Pour in the cider. It'll hiss and throw up a wonderful, sharp-sweet smell of apples hitting hot fat. Scrape the bottom of the tin with the wooden spoon, loosening every dark sticky bit. They're the whole reason you're doing this. Let the cider bubble for two or three minutes to cook off the rawness of the alcohol.
Sweet cider will turn the gravy syrupy and wrong. You want something dry and flat and honest, the kind of cider a farmer might drink at lunchtime without thinking about it. - 5
Add stock and reduce
Pour in the stock. Bring it to a steady simmer and let it reduce for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then. You want it to thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon without clinging to it. If it looks too thin, keep going. If it looks too thick, a splash more stock will loosen it. A gravy is a conversation, not a contract.
- 6
Finish with mustard and butter
Take the tin off the heat. Stir in the mustard, starting with a teaspoon and tasting. Add more if you want more bite. Drop in the cold butter and swirl the tin until it melts and the gravy turns glossy and rich. Any juices the pork has released while resting go in now. Season with salt and a lot of pepper. Taste it. Then taste it again. Strain into a warm jug if you want a smooth finish, or leave it as it is if you like seeing the sticky bits.
Chef Tips
- •The browned bits stuck to the roasting tin are the whole point. Don't rinse them, don't loosen them while the pork is cooking, and don't let them burn at the edges. They are concentrated roast pork in solid form, and dissolving them into cider is the single best thing you can do with them.
- •If you've roasted your pork in a dish that can't go on the hob, scrape everything out into a heavy frying pan and carry on there. Pyrex and ceramic won't take direct heat, but the flavour base travels perfectly well.
- •English mustard gives heat and proper bite. Wholegrain gives texture and a gentler warmth. Dijon sits somewhere between. Use whichever you already have open. This isn't the kind of recipe that rewards a special trip to the shops.
- •A splash of cream at the end turns this into something richer and more Norman in feel, closer to a pan sauce than a gravy. Worth knowing, though I usually leave it out. The cider needs room to taste like itself.
Advance Preparation
- •This isn't really a make-ahead sauce. It wants to be made in the tin while the pork rests, with everything still warm and sticky and alive. Trying to do it any other way loses half the point.
- •If you genuinely need to get ahead, reduce the cider and stock together in a saucepan the day before and keep the reduction in the fridge. On the day, finish it with the pork pan juices, mustard, and butter in the roasting tin while the meat rests. It won't be quite the same, but it'll still be good.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 130g)
Calories
100 calories
Total Fat
7 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
20 mg
Sodium
350 mg
Total Carbohydrates
3 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
1 g
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