The encyclopaedia of gravy
Roast potatoes and gravy present a genuine conflict — gravy softens the crust that makes a roast potato worth eating.
This page exists because the question is genuinely contested at Sunday tables.
The problem¶
A good roast potato has a shattering crust produced by roughing up the surface and roasting in very hot fat. Gravy is hot liquid. Hot liquid on a crisp crust makes a soft crust, within about forty seconds.
The three positions¶
Pour it on. The crust softens into something gravy-soaked and delicious, and the potato was going to be eaten in three minutes anyway.
Keep them dry. Gravy goes on the meat and the Yorkshire pudding; potatoes are eaten crisp and dipped, individually, at the moment of eating.
The compromise. Pour gravy over one half of the plate and keep two potatoes in the dry zone. This is the majority position in practice.
The dripping connection¶
The two things come from the same tin. Skim the fat from the roasting tin: the clear fat, smoking hot, roasts the potatoes; the dark juices underneath make the gravy. Beef dripping gives the best roast potatoes of all — see beef dripping.
If you are making roast potatoes in the same oven as the joint, take the potatoes out to crisp for the last 20 minutes while the meat rests and you make the gravy. The timing works out exactly.
💡 Chef's tip
Pour the gravy at the table, not in the kitchen. Thirty seconds of transit is thirty seconds of crust lost.