To me Canadian Thanksgiving is a pretty fall day with leaves falling from the trees, platters of delicious food covered in gravy and pants with enough stretch you could slingshot them across a football field.
In my imagination, American Thanksgiving is that Brady Bunch episode where Greg made a movie about the pilgrims.
With Thanksgiving coming up this weekend for Canadians it seemed like the perfect time to let you in on this little tip.
Chances are if you’re having a Thanksgiving dinner you’re having a turkey. Unless you’re a vegetarian or vegan in which case you’re probably spending the day filling up on coconut oil before heading out to your relatives who pre-drench everything in gravy because who knew a vegetarian couldn’t eat a little bit of giblet gravy?
I get rid of fat in one of two ways.
If I have time to chill the broth so the fat rises to the top and hardens a bit, I do this:
Method 1
Chill the broth overnight then do this.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
Method 2
The most foolproof method I’ve found for separating fat from broth or gravy if you don't have time to chill it, is this.
Fill a baggie with gravy, chicken broth, pan drippings or whatever else needs the fat separated out from it.
Fill a baggie with gravy, chicken broth, pan drippings or whatever else needs the fat separated out from it.
Cut the corner off of the bag and drain it until you get to the top portion where the fat is.
When you're done, just pinch hole at the bottom of the bag with your fingers. If you make a really small hole in the bag this will be easier to do. Unlike the mammoth hole I used.
Of course, I could get a bottomless fat separating cup like this, but I don't want to give up cupboard space for something I only use once or twice a year.
That’s it. That’s all you do. Fill a baggie, cut a corner. Normally when you cut corners things don’t work out well at all, but in this case it does.
CJ Charles
Great idea, Karen!! I do SO love turkey gravy, but there is always too much fat and I try using more of it than I should and end up with gravy with little oil puddles.
And this is totally unrelated except the fat part, but.... do you have a brilliant scheme for cleaning the oil out of plastic olive oil bottles so they can be recycled? I've tried washing with Dawn and hot water, but that oil just won't all come out. :-)
Karen
Hi CJ. That's probably because oil and water don't mix, so maybe try to add in an emulsifier like salt when you wash it to see if it helps. ~ karen!
CJ Charles
Dear Karen - I didn't know you were a chemist!! Thank you, I will try that.
Jean C.
Was really hoping for how to get rid of the other fat. :)
Stephanie
Happy Thanksgiving Karen. One quick question since I have searched the internet and not found a good answer. When probing your bird, where exactly is the thickest part of the thigh without hitting a bone? Thank you.
Karen
Hi Stephanie. I just put the thermometer into the thigh on an angle a couple of times and take a few different temperatures. Another way to tell if it's done is if the leg is loose in the joint of the bird and you can almost pull it apart. ~ karen!
Jane
I say “Thank you, Karen”, every Thanksgiving and Christmas. You method makes the best tasting gravy!
Randy P
Great easy and VERY affordable tip. Thanks for sharing. Have a marvelous holiday tomorrow, hope yours is simply Turkeyriffic.
Sandra D
Is the bag a sandwich bag, or a sturdier freezer bag? How hot can the gravy be before you dump into the plastic bag? For those who worry about another bag in the recycling, I always wash them and use them again; this one, of course, would be saved for gravy days. That's if I care about the fat being in the gravy :)
Kathy
That is SO SMART!!
Thanks!! (Not that I’m doing anything remotely like cooking a fatty critter; but never know when I might again!)
Happy beautiful falling leaf 🍁 day!!
Mary W
Excellent tip for using the baggie!!!! So simple yet my mind never went there. Worth every cent this blog costs me to read.
Sue H
Imagine my disappointment when I realized you were talking about gravy!
Kate Budacki
The fat is where the fun is. Mmmmm. It is a holiday after all.
Lesley on the Mountain
I found a very similar fat separator at Dollarama last year for $4. It works pretty good, but it does take up some space in my kitchen. I probably use it about 1-2 times per month in the fall and winter though. The plastic bag method is genius, but more plastic garbage in the landfill, sadly.
Francesca Faull
Excellent trick.
whitequeen96
Brilliant! The bag method is just what I'm looking for. I've seen those cups that look like watering cans with the spout at the bottom, but didn't want to spend the money.
Cassandra E
I meant to tell you, like a week ago when you shared about maybe wanting Thanksgiving more around the time of U.S. Thanksgiving...I wish ours was as early as yours. I love Autumn for sure, I love pumpkins (not spice lattes) and acorns and fall leaves. But, I can't start Christmas until the Turkey (that I don't eat) is gone. And I love Christmas. I want Santa ho ho ho-ing longer. If I could shove the turkey out the door by the middle of October, that would give me a whole extra month of jingle bells.
~Long time reader, infrequent commiserater.
Sharon
love this - always used the chill method
suzanne
I've used the fridge method before, good to know about the bag and smaller hole. Got my garlic sorted. I even cleaned out the jalapeño bed so I could rotate those puppies. Thanks for kick in the Ar*e