Perfect Mushroom Sauce/Gravy?

I ended up using every sauce-making technique I knew all at once, and it blew my mind. Started with most of a bottle of a petite sirah and five quartered criminis (deglazed the pan I browned the roast in), reduced, added a ton of liquid from the roast, added heavy cream, thickened, added a little flour, thickened, added a little cornstarch, thickened, added mushroom-flavored soy sauce, then watched it slowly bubble away and reduce while I finished up the rest of the meal. This thing went for probably an hour and ended up well beyond my expectations--from now on, every time I slow cook I'm going to make some variation of this stuff. It ended up getting poured all over everyone's plate and we all went comatose.

Phyltre in Home Cooking

Perfect Mushroom Sauce/Gravy?

I have a pot roast going with an estimated completion of 7:00 tonight (it is large.) I'd like to make an accompanying sauce/gravy using some small-medium criminis I have around (fresh), I have 12 of them. I'm aware of the basic process for making gravies, but I'm new to the process for roasts (and I'd like this to be more special, since company is coming over tonight.)

The flavors so far in the roast are a hickory smoke marinade, some thyme, a little garlic and ginger, and onion. I will be adding carrots, potatoes, etc. later on in the process so they don't end up totally overcooked...although I may cook the potatoes away from the roast to contrast the meat (might possibly crisp them or do a rough-mash.)

My questions are about the mushroom gravy/sauce--do I want a cream base? A beer base? Wine base? Thicken with flour? Cornstarch? Help! I will have an hour to make it and can run by the grocery if necessary.

Phyltre in Home Cooking

"Whole Fresh Picnic" + Slowcooker + Chinese Prep

Cooking completed somewhat earlier. Results were positive, but reflective of a somewhat compromised cooking method (which I now understand.)

It would appear that there are two totally separate ways to go with this kind of meat, and I tried going both ways at the same time (which has some positives and negatives of both). One can either cook dry and maximize meat texture, or cook wet and maximize flavor/skin edibility--for the sake of discussion I am ignoring methods that are looking for crackling skin. The Chinese method involves lots of liquid and basically stews the skin/connectives into jelly, which as it turns out is much better suited for ham hocks in my case. The method leading towards carnitas (which may or may not be Spanish in origin for all I know, let us presume garlic+onions+adobo seasoning) excludes extra liquid, keeping the stewing/steaming effect out of play and thereby leading to a completely different and perhaps superior meat texture due to lower internal temperatures (that do not totally gelatinize the skin).

I forged a path down the middle road and was left with edible skin and nicely textured meat--but parts of the shoulder appear slightly dry, and flavor was slightly lacking (although this is probably due to a few substitutions I made in the brining substrate, and lack of scallions or other vegetables in the cooker.) I have since discovered, happily, that adding dark mushroom soy sauce and dashes of lime juice directly to the final pulled product totally redeems the experience by reactivating the salivary glands and reasserting the miso-esque flavor the brining was meant to enforce. For the record, internal temperatures reached 198 degrees, and possibly a 201-203 maximum during resting. Only the Low setting was used on the Hamilton Beach, and hitting the 200's (somewhat quickly, around the 5.5 hour mark) did surprise me a bit. I'd like to go lower/slower but I'll have to see exactly how the "warm" feature works in conjunction with Probe mode to see if that is in fact possible.

Next up, once this shoulder is gone, I will attempt carnitas and compare notes. Finally, I will try the third route and go for carnitas that also produce a crackling skin (I will certainly need the oven for this, however.) And of course, I will run through the recipe again with ham hocks, which I expect will be fantastic. Thanks to previous posters for their helpful comments.

Phyltre in Home Cooking

"Whole Fresh Picnic" + Slowcooker + Chinese Prep

Brining is nearing the end. I've been reading in different threads about how the connective tissues really dissolve around 220 degrees, but I'm also seeing suggestions for cooking low and slow at 190. Is there a best path? Should I go 190 for hours, then hit 220 for a few hours as well to gelatinize the skin?

Phyltre in Home Cooking

"Whole Fresh Picnic" + Slowcooker + Chinese Prep

Step one's complete, I have it brining now (it was marked down at the grocery so I didn't want to let it hang out untreated very long.) I'm going to reply to this thread once it's cooked to report back. Anyone having additional suggestions or pointers has a 24-48 hour window. :)

Phyltre in Home Cooking