Some have a strainer over the opening as well to strain out bits. One suggestion sometimes seen for separating fat from meat juices is to do the following: in a large measuring jug or in a bowl, prop up a sturdy, sealable bag such as you would use for the freezer.
Pour the pan drippings in there, and wait a few minutes for fat separation to occur. Then lift the bag by the top, and snip a very small hole in one bottom corner of the bag, over where you want the juice to flow into.
Plus, it involves single-use plastic. An alternative method, if the roasting has been done well in advance of the meal, is to put the drippings in the fridge for a few hours. The fat will congeal on top. Use a ladle if the pan or container in which your pan gravy is in is too big to pour neatly into your gravy separator. Rest the gravy for a few minutes, or until you see a layer of fat form at the top.
Gravy separators are essentially pitchers with long spouts that start at their bottoms rather than on the top. The spout on your gravy separator works by drawing the gravy from the bottom. Pour your gravy carefully into your bowl or gravy boat. Stop pouring when you get to the layer of fat that was floating on top of your gravy. Discard the fat, wash gravy separator, and repeat if your batch of gravy was too large for one pass through the gravy separator.
A fat separator is essentially a measuring cup with a long pouring spout. Most of them come with a strainer lid that aids in separating broth from meat. The lid ensures that only broth enters the pitcher. There is no rocket science involved in defatting of the stock. It uses the simple formula of gravity. Fat is less dense than water; hence it floats while all the broth settles down. Within a few minutes, all of the fat and broth have separated.
The pitcher is designed in such a way that the spout is always lower than the fat layer. You can then tilt the fat separator to pour out the broth while the fat remains inside the pitcher. After taking out the broth, take out the fat from the pitcher and continue with the rest of the stock. The spout has a tightly fixed rubber stopper in it. This aids in keeping the stock out of the spout until the fat has separated and the broth is ready to be poured out.
Tip: For better straining, line the strainer with a filter paper. This ensures that no particles other than broth and fat enter the fat separator. Fat separators have not always been there to make things easy. Traditional methods were very tiring and required a lot of attention to detail. All work with the basic principles of gravity and densities. Fat being less dense always rises up. This is one of the most common ways to separate fat from the stock. All you need to do is strain your stock thoroughly and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Cooling the broth causes the fat to harden. The solidified fat forms a layer on the top of the stock, which can then be pried and removed carefully.
Before the introduction of a fat separator, this used to be my favourite method for defatting the stock. This was an excellent method, but only when I had to work with small volumes of stock. As the quantity of stock increases, it becomes difficult to remove the solidified fat.
The pieces are large and so, often break while removing them. Moreover, putting the broth in the freezer causes it to cool. Cold broths are of no good and hence I had to reheat the whole batch again. Being a culinary chef, my freezer is always filled. Therefore, making a place for big containers full of broth in the freezer was another task. This is another traditional method that is very similar to the previous one. Pour the cooled down stock into a zip-lock bag and wait for a few minutes.
After you see that all the fat has risen to the top, snip a small hole at one corner of the bag and pour out all the gravy. You will need to completely focus while using this method.
While I was on it, I was quite vigilant that I only poured the de-fatted stock. A small negligence can cause you to repeat the whole process. I remember how I had to re-do this several times to make sure my stock is defatted properly. This is, for sure, a very attention requiring method. Besides, it is only suitable for very small volumes of stock. This is an effective yet a very exhausting method.
Wait for your stock to cool until you see a fat layer forming on top. Then squeeze the bulb of the baster and suck out all the fat from the stock. For a person like me, who hates doing the dishes, the aftermath of sucking the fat out was pretty bad.
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