Gravy Separator

This simple device will save you endless time and hassle, and your soups, stews and sauces will be better. It's a "must have" even if you never make gravy for the rest of your life!

The photo specimen is from Oxo, and has the nice feature that it comes with a rubber stopper to help keep oil out of the spout. The blue strainer it also comes with is totally useless - the holes are too large and it has insufficient capacity - feel free to toss it.

The one flaw in the Oxo is that it doesn't come with anything to clean out the spout, and I'm pretty strict about that sort of thing. I bought a cheap bulb baster that came with a cleaning brush that's just perfect for the Oxo. Oxo sells one of those too. Store the stopper in the jar, not in the spout, or it will lose its tension.

More on Kitchen Equipment.

Why do You Need This?

Lets talk about Soup Stock. It's one of the most useful staples you can have in your kitchen. For how to make it and how to always have it on hand, without filling your freezer compartment (which is already full) - see our Soup Stock page.

Endless recipes tell you to stash the soup pot in the fridge overnight and skim off the hardened fat in the morning. Right! Like you have room for an 8 quart soup pot in your fridge - and "overnight" fits right in with your lifestyle. Ha!

Endless other recipes say to skim the fat off the top. No way can you get anywhere near all the fat off this way without losing a whole lot of precious soup stock - and, it's real tedious. The paper towel method recommended by some is even worse.

The solution is very simple. Why don't cookbooks mention this method? Probably because the device is called a "gravy" separator - and soup stock isn't gravy.

1. Pour your soup stock through a wire strainer into a bowl to remove the solids. In most, but not all cases, you discard the solids. Let it sit in the bowl for a while so the fat comes to the top and small debris sinks to the bottom.

2. Pour stock into the Gravy Separator until it's full. Let it sit a bit to make sure all the fat is at the top, then pour 2/3 of what's in the separator into a pot. Pour the separator full again and repeat. Note: though not really necessary, I pour into the pot through an extremely fine Asian metal mesh skimmer (6-1/2 inch diameter) to remove all sediment that got through the first strainer.

3. When you're down to the last fill, just pour slowly and watch the spout. When you see the first drops of fat in the spout, tilt it up to stop the pouring.

The result: oil free soup stock, whether it's beef, pork, fish, or vegetable, with very little lost - and ready the same day (the same hour, even).

You will find other uses for this device as well - you can even use it to separate fat from gravy!