Tomato Gravy Recipe


 
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Wayne Truelove

TVWBB Pro
My wife and I just hand picked 4 5-gallon buckets of tomatoes from a local farmer, Moore's Farm, near Manor, Ga. Typically, we blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, remove the skins, let cool and then hand-squeeze in a huge pot, season and simmer for a while. The gravy is used mainly on rice but looking for other ideas as well as other's technique and seasonings used.

Our basic seasoning is salt, pepper and bacon grease.

My 'powers' tell me "Bryan S" eyes are going to light up when he sees 'bacon grease'!
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I use bacon grease or lard plus unsalted butter. Aromatics are minced onion (usually Fla spring onion or scallion) plus a little garlic. Spicing is salt, white and black pepper, a little thyme, and cayenne. I finish it with some cream. I could have rice or biscutis with tomato gravy till the cows come home and would still want for more.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Wayne Truelove:
Typically, we blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, remove the skins, let cool and then hand-squeeze in a huge pot
My 'powers' tell me "Bryan S" eyes are going to light up when he sees 'bacon grease'!
icon_biggrin.gif
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
They did. You know I remember hearing/reading about a refference to tomato gravy years ago but never knew what it was or used for. Sounds yummy to me. I'm mean you can't go wrong with bacon grease. Ok hand squeeze, so seeds and all, pretty much crushing the toms. What are the proportions for about a gallon/#10 can of toms? Might have to try this on some biscutis. Thanks for sharing.
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Bryan S - I knew you'd be along soon.
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We do sort of a two step method, not to be confused with the couple-country dance, which are prepping for canning/vac bagging and then making the gravy. The processes are very easy so I hope I don't screw up how to do it and make it sound complicated. For the portions -

For canning/vac bagging: we use a 6.5qt pot filled with about 4 qts of the crushed tomatoes and do a high simmer...lots-o-popping....skimming the top and discarding for about 45 mins or so...then add about 1 Tbs of salt and 1 Tbs of sugar....cool them in the beer fridge and then vac bag'm.

For the gravy:
we just thaw out a couple of quart bags, simmer in a pot and season to taste with salt, pepper, bacon grease and sauted onions.

Last night, we reserved about 2.5 qts to make the gravy and here are our best guess at portions: 1 T salt and pepper, half of a small yellow onion and 3 T of bacon grease.

Hope that answers your question Bryan.
 
I've had tomato gravy that was so sweet it could be served as dessert topping. Um, uh-uh.

My flow is different than Wayne's but the sweetness looks like it would be about the same: not very--just a little sugar to boost the natural sweet of the tomatoes.

I can get ripe tomatoes nearly year round so I pretty much make what I'll eat at the moment. I don't cook it long.

I peel about 2 lbs tomatoes (like, 3 large), cut crosswise and gently squeeze the seeds out, then chop with a knife. Meanwhile, I sweat one spring onion, minced (white part only; or 3 minced scallions, white part only) and one minced large garlic clove in 1.5 T grease or lard plus .5 T unsalted butter, over very low heat, till the garlic sweetens and colors slightly but doesn't brown, about 10 min.

To this I'll add a good pinch each of white and black pepper, a small pinch of powdered thyme and a pinch of cayenne, stirring well. I increase the heat to med, cook 15 secs, stirring, then add the chopped tomatoes. I bring the tomatoes to a simmer, salt to taste, add a sprinkling of sugar, and about 3 or 4 T heavy cream. This I simmer, stirring often, till slightly thickened, maybe 10 min or so. That's it.

I also like it over soft-scrambled eggs and it is very good drizzled over thick slices of good bread on which cheese has benn melted under the broiler. Nice with bacon on there too.
 
Thanks for the details Kevin. I really like the addition of garlic, cayenne and heavy cream....and then on eggs. Sounds great!

Hey Bryan.....Kevin mentioned bacon.....
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I'm going to have to try tomatoe gravy it sounds great! Never heard of it before this post. Thanks for sharing.

No flour or cornstarch? What thickens it? The cream?
 
For mine or Wayne's thickening would come from reduction. The cream in mine is to smooth and carry flavors and for a slight textural change.
 
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